Movie Review: Haywire

It is an odd sight to see a woman bound across roof tops, having scaled up the stairs of Wynn’s Hotel on Lower Abbey Street, Dublin. Things become more surreal when her pursuers are heavily armed and in riot gear with the Garda logo emblazoned on the back. Our heroine soon finds her way to Dublin port and puts an eventful overnight trip to Ireland behind her. The previous night, she was escorted by a suited Michael Fassbender to Russborough House out in Wicklow, and on retiring to the Shelbourne Hotel their date turns sour and sets in train a tense morning and eventful departure from our shores. That a significant part of ‘Haywire’ was set, and more significantly shot, in Dublin was a surprise but a happy one for this reviewer. The city looks great, modern if a bit littered, European, cast in blue hues as is director Steven Soderberg’s want. Happily, there are no cringe worthy accents and no cliche so that Dublin sits happily among a number of international locations used to construct the pieces of the larger thriller plot.

Haywire’ is an action heavy spy drama, telling a small story of personalities and agendas. The woman Mallory at the centre of events is played by Gina Carano, an essentially unknown entity to date unless you are a fan of mixed martial arts fighting and is a cool-headed blunt instrument not comfortable in the necessary formal wear to play nice but happier smeared in war paint and giving as good as she gets from the cast of better known male actors, some of whom want her good and dead. Soderbergh on directing duties has along with ‘Contagion’ managed to accrue two great casts of late. Along with Fassbender, Carano shares screen time with Ewan Mc Gregor, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Bill Pullman. Oh – and Channing Tatum.

The film is a pastiche of influences; intense bursts of Bourne style violence, with nods to TV series ‘Alias’ though without any of the melodrama. There are no elaborate set pieces or cheese to draw comparisons with Bond of old, the film takes itself seriously. Despite this, there is fun to be had. The structuring and plotting creates a viable thriller as a background to the punches and smashing and the pace and sophistication of the intrigue and distinct takes on the action gives the audience something to engage with. There is style, there is no doubting a Soderbergh film with the settings cast in coloured hazes and uncomplicated shots making walks down Kildare Street and car chases more intense and immediate. Carano stays firmly on message throughout, a brief sojourn into family life gives no time for a crack in her sheen to show a creamy inside to her character, it remains to be seen what will come of her in any future roles.