Haywire: spy thriller doesn’t quite thrill [MOVIE REVIEW]

ewan mcgregor
Gina Carano and Ewan McGregor star in Relativity Media's Haywire. Photo by Claudette Barius/Five Continents Imports
ewan mcgregor

Gina Carano and Ewan McGregor star in Relativity Media's Haywire. Photo by Claudette Barius/Five Continents Imports

There is a thin line between a hit and a miss, and sometimes within the same film you’ll get both. Such is the case with “Haywire,” Stephen Soderbergh’s attempt at making a spy thriller. I say attempt because he doesn’t quite succeed.

Mallory Kane, a “contractor” with a private “agency” was hired to extract a Chinese dissident from his captors in Barcelona. Working with a small but elite team, she succeeds and turns him over to her contact. Relieved to be home and contemplating a change of employers, her boss and former lover, Kenneth, exhorts her to take one quick job, practically a vacation as he tells her, as a personal favor. Against her better judgment, she agrees and that is where things go very wrong and the bodies begin to pile up, all pointing in her direction. Who is friend, who is foe? Who is dirty, who is clean? Who is duped and who is savvy? It’s all necessarily confusing.

What is also confusing is what this film is supposed to be. Is it a violent, action-packed thriller about betrayal? Certainly there is enough action, although despite the well choreographed fight scenes, and there is one every few minutes, no one seems to break a sweat and Mallory suffers no broken bones or noticeable bruises despite pummeling that would fell a horse; her makeup is almost always perfect and her hair falls beautifully across her high forehead. There’s plenty of betrayal, to the extent that it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys, and that’s a good thing. What there isn’t, however, is pacing. Moving methodically, the danger is recognizable just not palpable.

Was it supposed to be a dark comedy? Perhaps. The deadpan reactions of most of the players could have lent themselves to a tongue-in-cheek spy thriller, especially since Soderbergh has stated that his inspiration was “From Russia with Love.” The early James Bond films were all infused with humor and deadpan elegance There are definitely flashes that this may have been Soderbergh’s intention because the blandness of the unblinking violence as the film is climbing to its denouement is noirishly funny and emphasizes the banality of evil. It just seems to be too little and too late.

Gina Carano, famed mixed martial arts champion, in her feature film debut, stars as Mallory. Soderbergh is said to have created the role in order to work with her, but he didn’t work hard enough. Whether her affect is dull by design or due to a lack of experience and direction, she plays the role blandly, so removed from the action most of the time that it is difficult to identify with her, a major mistake as she is the heroine and the audience needs to care about the stakes, especially as they relate to her; even more so when those stakes are elevated. The problems are not necessarily of her making and may instead relate to the above-mentioned pacing problem because she’s quite engaging in the last act of the film.

Soderbergh had an outstanding roster of major international stars in his film, but, again, most of them were undercut by his indecision as to what kind of film he was making. Ewan McGregor, with a haircut every bit as awful as the one sported by Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men,” is another actor undone by the bland portrayal of his character. Antonio Banderas doesn’t come alive as a character until the very end. Mathieu Kassovitz and Michael Fassbender, however, are excellent, adding dimension to characters without much depth. But the true standouts in this film are Channing Tatum and Michael Douglas. If there is any true urgency felt in the film, it is due to the presence of Tatum, whose deceptive earnestness juxtaposed with intensity brings a much needed immediacy to the film. And Michael Douglas brings a star quality, humor and duplicity to the role of a benign spymaster played as a corporate CEO. He and Tatum are worth the price of admission.

“Haywire” is always interesting, it just isn’t compelling and it needs to be.

Opening Friday, January 20 at the ArcLight Beach Cities, AMC South Bay Galleria, AMC Del Amo18 and AMC Rolling Hills 20. Neely also writes a blog on television and movies.

 

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