Who's that girl
5:46pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Your Say
Who's that girl
HAYWIRE (15)
Starring: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas.
irector: Steven Soderbergh.
AS the credits rolled at the end of Haywire, there was one question on everybody’s lips: “Who is she?”
She is, in fact, Gina Carano, the undisputed star of Haywire, a real flash bang wallop of a movie that rarely pauses for breath, and leaves us breathless.
Carano’s day job is as a mixed martial arts exponent whose striking looks and ability to athletically kick bottom makes her an ideal female Bond/Bourne type action film character.
In Haywire, Carano plays Mallory Kane, an in-demand black ops agent who would seem to have been double-crossed by someone – was it her employer, rival agents, someone in in the government, or some shady individual whose origins are unknown?
Famous faces flit in and out of the story, but are they good guys or bad? Who knows, or cares? Just let Mallory strut her stuff to sort it out.
The plot takes some following, and seems to open mid-action with Mallory holing up in a diner somewhere in rural New York state. After a brutal punch up with a former colleague amid the early morning breakfast crowd, she takes a hostage and as they make their getaway, she tells him what has been going on in her life.
From this we are expected to deduce the chicanery that has been taking place and relate it to the predicament Mallory finds herself in. Take may advice – don’t bother. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Director Steven Soderberg takes us on a lightning tour of glamorous locations – Barcelona, San Diego, New Mexico, Dublin(?!) – and packs plenty of action into each, as Mallory attempts to unpick the complicated web at which she seems to the centre.
The Ireland sequence, much of it featuring current hot property Michael Fassbender, is particularly exciting stuff – Carano and Fassbender look the business when they spend the evening at a posh do (he’s got to be the next James Bond) and it culminates with a perilous chase across the rooftops of Dublin.
Haywire has a lot going for it, but ultimately the film belongs to Gina Carano. Remember the name.
8/10
