Haywire (Steven Soderbergh, 2012)

[domino harvey]

This is Soderbergh going through the motions, but what motions? Like the international production spy film craze of the sixties, this is an inert collection of actors giving a couple days' work (never more noticeable than in Ewan McGregor's unwaveringly consistent undercut) in service of some doofy intrigue plot that Soderbergh could not care less about. I'm actually not sure what he cares about here outside of the opportunities to use a stunt woman as leading actress in some artificially constructed set pieces (and speaking of Soderbergh's intent, there's something borderline insulting about how early on he uses Holmes' discordant lark of a score to undermine any conventional attempt at narrative thrust or suspense-- I "got" what Soderbergh was doing, but it was pretty obnoxious). That being said, I thought Carano did exactly what she needed to, and while this is hardly the start of a career, this is a nice example of using a non-professional's strengths and minimizing their weaknesses. There's a couple nice laughs had thanks to the Ceremony guy, and as ever in these sort of films it's amusing to see celebs slumming it for a plane ticket and a chance to work with the talent behind the camera (who brings all his pseudonyms to the party on this one), but it's hard to imagine any defense stronger than a shrug being too convincing.

[whaleallright]

I thought the plotting was pleasant at the least -- Soderbergh by this point is an old hand at shifting chronology and strategic ellipses, and I enjoyed the effortlessness of this aspect.

I also liked some of the stylistic playfulness of the film, such as the constantly-shifting light and elliptical cuts in the final fight sequence on the beach.

I guess Soderbergh toying around with familiar materials was enough for me--sort of like Suzuki in some of his minor efforts. And I'm sympathetic to his formalist impulses.

What's odd, if not objectionable, was how proudly Soderbergh wore his lack of ambition in interviews. Although even that is consistent with his attempts to thwart critical attempts to characterize him as a capital-A Auteur.

(As a side note, it's also odd that someone who is obviously attracted to tricky storytelling insists that he largely sees cinema as a graphic medium.)

[HistoryProf]

Gave this a spin tonight and it plays about like you'd imagine a film based on Soderbergh seeing a hot MMA fighter late one night on TV and thinking "hey, someone should put her in a movie!" would. I give him credit for having the cache to pull in that cast, and it's well directed, scored, and shot. Certainly not a bad time, but it was hard to get too invested in the Carano's character. She did well though, i'll give her that, and I think she's got a future on the big screen if she wants it. All in all not a bad way to burn 93 minutes, but it did feel a bit like a phoned in job by Soderbergh done solely to satisfy that one late night urge and then move on.

Sure is cool how he can pull a cast together as impressive as this one on even a minor vanity project though. Sucks that he's retiring.

[knives]

I think that Dobbs deserves at least some credit. I'm mostly with Dom on this one (says the guy who saw it twice in theaters), but for how laid back and just having fun Soderbergh was I thought that Dobbs put forth a truly great script, possibly his best yet or at least since Kafka.

[black&huge]

Rewatched this tonight after many years. Was ALL of Carano's dialogue replaced? What was the reason?

[Monterey Jack]

Sure is cool how he can pull a cast together as impressive as this one on even a minor vanity project though. Sucks that he's retiring.

To paraphrase Stephen King, Soderbergh "retires" the way fat people diet.

[knives]

Rewatched this tonight after many years. Was ALL of Carano's dialogue replaced? What was the reason?

Her voice is squeaky so they heavily mixed it.

[Mr Sausage]

Rewatched this tonight after many years. Was ALL of Carano's dialogue replaced? What was the reason?

Her voice is squeaky so they heavily mixed it.

That was what was said at the time, but isn’t it now considered spin to cover the fact they had Laura San Giacomo redub all of Carano’s lines?

[knives]

Hadn’t heard that before.

[reaky]

Rewatched this tonight after many years. Was ALL of Carano's dialogue replaced? What was the reason?

Her voice is squeaky so they heavily mixed it.

Kudos to whoever had the balls to tell Gina she had a squeaky voice.

[nitin]

I thought it was an open secret that Laura San Giacomo's voice was used throughout the film instead of Carano's?