| Vidaview: Movie Review - "Haywire” or Jason Bourne Has Met His Match |
| Written by Alejandro A. Riera |
|
Take his two most recent films: “Contagion” and “Haywire.” Both are star-studded genre films. But in “Contagion,” Soderbergh turns his back on the apocalyptic, action-driven scenarios of your prototypical disaster movie and focuses on the human side of the story. The result: a tight, well-told, edgy and disturbing story about the spread of a powerful virus across the world and how citizens, politicians, scientists and the media react to this crisis that doesn’t need flashy effects nor hyperbole to keep you at the edge of your seat. With “Haywire,” built around mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano, Soderbergh has created an anti-Bourne action thriller while sticking close to its template: instead of fight and action sequences chopped down to the point of incomprehensibility, Soderbergh, Carano and fight choreographers Jonathan Eusebio, Don Tai and J.J. Perry offer bone-crunching and furniture-busting ballets shot mostly in long shots. They come close to the choreographic grace of some of the best kung fu films coming out of Hong Kong in the 80s (I am most definitely looking at you, Jackie Chan). We see, and feel, every punch and every kick land on its target. Carano plays Mallory Kane, a covert operative and ex-Marine on the run after being framed for murder by her superiors. We first meet her outside a diner un Upstate New York, looking like a refugee from Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy” in her hoodie and jet-black hair. She is there to meet her boss (Ewan McGregor) but instead finds herself face to face with an agent (Channing Tatum) with whom she’s worked in the past. A smashed Mallory and her team were sent to Barcelona to rescue and turn over to the Spanish a defecting Chinese journalist who was seeking asylum. The operation turns out to be a success after some hair-raising moments. Mallory is soon assigned to escort Paul (Michael Fassbender), an MI-6 operative, to Dublin on another mission. She soon discovers that she is being set up for the murder of that Chinese journalist by her bosses and after a fantastic, four-star-hotel-room-destroying sequence that leaves Paul flat-lined, she goes on the run, determined to bring down whomever set her up. Which brings us back to New York and that kidnapping. Shot with the Red Digital camera by Soderbergh (under his now legendary pseudonym Peter Andrews), “Haywire”’s cold, almost clinical look may be off-putting at first, especially when he goes from black and white to full color photography in one action sequence, or when he opts for a desaturated look in others. His use of the long take in some chase sequences is equally unexpected but it pays in dividends, especially in one scene where Mallory and Scott are cornered by the state police in a forest, all shot from inside Scott’s car. Even though this is her first film and Soderbergh digitally manipulated her voice, there is no doubt that Carano, like wrestler turned movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, possesses a larger than life personality that’s perfect for the big screen. You simply cannot take your eyes off her. It also helps that she has a rather unique, enigmatic look, a penetrating gaze and a no-nonsense attitude. Co-stars Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Antonio Banderas and Ewan McGregor all seem to be having a blast, bringing panache to what in the good old days of the double feature would have been a magnificent “B” film. Alejandro A. Riera writes about culture (Latino and non-Latino alike) in his blog culturebodega.wordpress.com
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January 19, 2012, 9:00pm CST (“Haywire” or Jason Bourne Has Met His Match) Like Clint Eastwood during most of the 90s and the first half of this past decade, Steven Soderbergh (“Traffic,” “Ché,” the “Ocean’s Eleven” movies, among many others) has equally divided his time between his most personal and most commercial work. He crosses with ease that line that separates Hollywood from independent cinema and sometimes even finds a way to unite both worlds while turning its most basic rules upside-down.
coffee pot, some rough scuffling, a couple of bullet wounds and broken furniture later, Mallory reluctantly kidnaps a young man, Scott (Michael Angarano), whom she tells the entire story up to that point as she tries to cross state lines.
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