Movie Review : Haywire
Friday, January 27, 2012 5:29:43 PM (IST)
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Anaam, Bollywood Trade Editorial
The film may work well with Soderbergh cultists who discover merit in whatever he does. HAYWIRE relies entirely on the persona and fighting skills of its lead actress Gina Carano, a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, who plays Mallory Kane, an ex-US marine, now working as a mercenary operative for a firm that undertakes covert field operations for the US government for a fees.
The film’s wafer-thin storyline and predictable plot is crammed with top line stars who make brief and sporadic appearances during the 93-minute film. So, if you get into the theatre hoping to feast over the histrionic prowess and formidable screen presence of old timers like Michael Douglas, and Antonia Banderas, and not so old-timers like Ewan McGregor, and Michael Fassbender, you may be disappointed.
The lead character Mallory is as invincible and cool as our own Don in DON 2. You can pulverise her head, throw hot coffee on her face, and make her fall from big heights and she would still be standing on her two feet with a few minor bruises on a determined looking rock-solid smooth face of a MMA wrestler. In one of the fight and chase sequences a fashionable hand-knitted Newsboy cap sits on the brunette’s head, unmoved amidst the intense fighting, parkouring, pummelling, kickboxing, somersaulting, and tumbling turmoil and mayhem. She has the capacity to wriggle out of incredibly precarious circumstances using her MMA prowess. She has a sixth sense that performs the lowly task of guessing the obvious shenanigans and plots of her double-faced tormentors.
She meticulously and successfully carries out a covert job of extracting a Chinese dissident Jiang (Anthony Brandon Wong) from amidst a group of kidnappers in Barcelona. She has Aaron (Channing Tatum) as her associate in the operation conducted at the behest of Coblenz (Michael Douglas) a US government official. She is yet again sent on a seemingly innocuous mission by her employer and ex-lover Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) to play the wife of Paul (Michael Fassbender) an ex-MI6 operative. She discovers later that it was an elaborate plot to implicate her in the killing of the same Chinese dissident she had rescued earlier in Barcelona and who was sent for safe keeping to New Mexico. She is on the run now, but as said earlier, she has the wherewithal and power to beat a whole army. She gets out of the jam and wants to get even now. She has to discover the (pre-discovered) plotters who tried to eliminate her. She finally catches up with the double-crossers and avenges the betrayal without much ado and effort.
The film begins on a promising note in its opening sequence, but very quickly degenerates into a trite, predictable, and implausible action drama of Bollywood variety. It attempts to emulate the legacy of THE BOURNE IDENTITY but fails miserably. It lacks its taut edginess, conviction, and visceral quality. The decision of Kenneth to waste an important, effective, and sensible operative like Mallory to achieve some ridiculous objective is not convincing enough to cause the great gush of adrenalin. And if he is doing it out of jealousy for her coming close to Aaron during the Barcelona mission, it does not come through.
The fight sequences replicate MMA bouts with a lot of choreographed head banging and somersaults. Mallory’s hurtle course is devoid of jaw-dropping twists, turns, thrills, chills, and the cliff-hanger moments. The audience does not get on to the ride and mostly watches the show from the sidelines, occasionally relishing the sexual energy exuded by the gritty and physically solid persona of Ms. Carano. Will this help her become a Hollywood icon and much in demand fixture in the films of this genre? I have my doubts.
Even the film’s colour palette is the carryover of the helmer’s past work. It alternates between warm, cold, and black & white hues for no definite rhyme or reason. We have seen such sleight of hand being performed before. That is the big issue I have with the film. Soderbergh has explored nothing here neither the form nor the content. It is not path-breaking cinema and is just another film among countless many of the genre.
The $23 million picture has so far collected $12 million since it’s US and UK bow at the box office on Jan 20, 2012. It should not be a losing proposition for Relativity Media in ultimate analysis. Its release in India on 26th January seems ill timed though. The focus of the entire country is on AGNEEPATH and the Golden Globe winner with five Oscar nominations THE DESCENDANTS will be the first priority of Hollywood junkies through the extended weekend.
Related Articles :
- PVR Pictures to distribute HAYWIRE in India
- Asians go aggressive at European Film Market (EFM), Berlin
Tags : Steven Soderbergh, Gregory Jacobs, Lem Dobbs, Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, David Holmes, Peter Andrews, Relativity Media, Tanveer Films
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