Haywire (2011)
Feb. 9th, 2012 12:33![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyHaywire. Dir. Steven Soderbergh, 2011.
I went to see this movie with my awesome roommate N. We were not the only pair of women in the theater who saw the movie at least partly because of Michael Fassbender, as was made clear by the woman in front of us jumping into our geeky conversation pre-previews, and the women behind us squealing when he first showed up on screen. Ah, fandom.
But Haywire! I cannot quite recommend the movie whole-heartedly, for reasons upon which I shall elaborate, but I can recommend that you see it. It is well worth seeing, because the female protagonist, Mallory, is an absolute BAMF. And, as probably a lot of people know, Gina Carano, who plays Mallory, has the martial arts background and training to pull off all the fights with complete realism. Complete realism, actually, is the hallmark of this movie and its treatment of Mallory and her way of getting things done, and I very much liked that about it. MALLORY IS AMAZING.
The thing about Soderbergh is that his movies are so very often rather sardonic--this plays very well with some of his movies, such as the Ocean's films, but in this film the decidedly sardonic tone sat rather at odds with the actual plot of the story, in which Mallory, a former Marine now working as an independent security contractor, is set up for murder by her ex-boyfriend and current boss, and doesn't take kindly to it.
I liked that the movie kept us guessing about the exact placement of loyalties, and I appreciated the rather razor-edged irony (and implicit political statement) of Mallory, independent contractor who is forced to rely on a U.S. government official for help, and then to take a job with that same government. I really liked her relationship with her father, who is also clearly awesome. The fight scenes were realistic, and AWESOME--I loved how one of the major indicators that Mallory understands she's been set up is when she takes off her heels. And then she stabs her would-be assassin, played by Michael Fassbender, with them. That's before she CHOKES HIM WITH HER LEGS.
So, yeah, Fassbender. When he puts on that cut-glass British accent and looks pretty, he is devastatingly attractive, but I would be lying if I said that part of the attraction of seeing him in this movie isn't him getting his ass kicked by a woman, which I found satisfying on multiple levels. (I was also tickled to see that the center of Dublin, where I spent a lot of time six years ago, doesn't look to have changed much at all. Dublin I ♥ you!)
Many awesome parts, but in the end, as a whole, a bit too bloodless--compared with Salt, which whatever else you want to say about it had people cheering in the theater when the female protagonist killed her worst enemy, everyone's just a bit too professional for their own good, except when they're not and it gets them what they deserve, and ironically the extreme competence of everyone involved winds up working against the movie's impact.
I went to see this movie with my awesome roommate N. We were not the only pair of women in the theater who saw the movie at least partly because of Michael Fassbender, as was made clear by the woman in front of us jumping into our geeky conversation pre-previews, and the women behind us squealing when he first showed up on screen. Ah, fandom.
But Haywire! I cannot quite recommend the movie whole-heartedly, for reasons upon which I shall elaborate, but I can recommend that you see it. It is well worth seeing, because the female protagonist, Mallory, is an absolute BAMF. And, as probably a lot of people know, Gina Carano, who plays Mallory, has the martial arts background and training to pull off all the fights with complete realism. Complete realism, actually, is the hallmark of this movie and its treatment of Mallory and her way of getting things done, and I very much liked that about it. MALLORY IS AMAZING.
The thing about Soderbergh is that his movies are so very often rather sardonic--this plays very well with some of his movies, such as the Ocean's films, but in this film the decidedly sardonic tone sat rather at odds with the actual plot of the story, in which Mallory, a former Marine now working as an independent security contractor, is set up for murder by her ex-boyfriend and current boss, and doesn't take kindly to it.
I liked that the movie kept us guessing about the exact placement of loyalties, and I appreciated the rather razor-edged irony (and implicit political statement) of Mallory, independent contractor who is forced to rely on a U.S. government official for help, and then to take a job with that same government. I really liked her relationship with her father, who is also clearly awesome. The fight scenes were realistic, and AWESOME--I loved how one of the major indicators that Mallory understands she's been set up is when she takes off her heels. And then she stabs her would-be assassin, played by Michael Fassbender, with them. That's before she CHOKES HIM WITH HER LEGS.
So, yeah, Fassbender. When he puts on that cut-glass British accent and looks pretty, he is devastatingly attractive, but I would be lying if I said that part of the attraction of seeing him in this movie isn't him getting his ass kicked by a woman, which I found satisfying on multiple levels. (I was also tickled to see that the center of Dublin, where I spent a lot of time six years ago, doesn't look to have changed much at all. Dublin I ♥ you!)
Many awesome parts, but in the end, as a whole, a bit too bloodless--compared with Salt, which whatever else you want to say about it had people cheering in the theater when the female protagonist killed her worst enemy, everyone's just a bit too professional for their own good, except when they're not and it gets them what they deserve, and ironically the extreme competence of everyone involved winds up working against the movie's impact.