Haywire (2011)
I really like Steven Soderbergh. He makes smart, stylish movies, and he tries new things. A few years ago I caught The Girlfriend Experience, which wasn’t my favorite, but an interesting experiment featuring a variety of non-actors, including porn star, Sasha Gray. In Haywire, Soderbergh again uses a non-actor to play his protagonist. This time he has Gina Carano, a badass MMA fighter playing an ex-Marine and gun for hire, caught in a conspiracy. Carano may not have much of a screen presence, but her fight scenes are incredible. My roommate felt like her acting inability made the character unsympathetic and the movie boring, but I thought Soderbergh did an excellent job working around it. Hiring a talented actress would have allowed the film more emotional notes, but the movie works well enough as an action-conspiracy.
If you’re not into the dazzling fight sequences, or Gina Carano’s well-muscled curves, there’s plenty of man-candy in the film as well. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected I would. Highly recommended for fans of butt-kicking females. You will not be disappointed.
