Steven Soderbergh, no slouch when it comes to thrilling, high-end drama, now turns his attention to Haywire. It’s one of those “I’m-a-spy-but-I’ve-been-betrayed-by-my-bosses-and-now-I’m-on-the-run-to-save-my-life-and-clear-my-name” kind of movies. It stars Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender and Channing Tatum – all great – but the star of the show is Gina Carano, an attractive Mixed Martial Artist (and thus, honestly, not really an actress).
Ms Carano’s OK, really, (“tries hard” in school report parlance) but she unfortunately speaks in a flat monotone and exhibits an emotional range of somewhere between zero and 0.002. So measured is her “performance” that there’s not a moment at any time throughout the film where there’s the slightest doubt she won’t make it through her challenges. Mechanical. Unfortunately the film feels a bit like that too, as a result. Haywire was written for and filmed mostly in Dublin.