Mallory Kane is good enough at her 'private contracting' work that clients ask for her specifically, but she's planning to leave the company after the withering of a relationship with her boss. He finds a tidy way to solve the problems her departure will cause, while fulfilling an eight-figure contract with a governmental client. As he says with an amused smile, "it's about money. It's always about money." And his plans for her are unpleasantly final. But she's too perceptive to be taken by surprise. . .
Haywire is Steven Soderbergh's extremely crisp, intelligent take on the world of private intelligence contractors operating in the shadowy world linking governments, dissidents, and national intelligence organizations, and one employee's discovery that she's the target of a duplicitous employer. Soderbergh's directorial skill draws an excellent performance from Gina Carano, in her first role, as a focused operative with a phenomenal skill in hand-to-hand combat. She may be tightly-wound - a bemused colleague (Channing Tatum) asks "Is that your idea of R&R? Wine and firearm maintenance?" - but she knows how to navigate the murky world of international espionage with the right proportion of expertise and scepticism. She's able to deal with the duplicity of her superior, Ewan McGregor, and earn the supportive trust of government administrator Michael Douglas. Soderbergh's talent for helping character become real in the landscapes of his films makes Haywire a gripping exploration of how to navigate the duplicity inherent in worlds where morality is superseded by the profit motive.
Haywire is Steven Soderbergh's extremely crisp, intelligent take on the world of private intelligence contractors operating in the shadowy world linking governments, dissidents, and national intelligence organizations, and one employee's discovery that she's the target of a duplicitous employer. Soderbergh's directorial skill draws an excellent performance from Gina Carano, in her first role, as a focused operative with a phenomenal skill in hand-to-hand combat. She may be tightly-wound - a bemused colleague (Channing Tatum) asks "Is that your idea of R&R? Wine and firearm maintenance?" - but she knows how to navigate the murky world of international espionage with the right proportion of expertise and scepticism. She's able to deal with the duplicity of her superior, Ewan McGregor, and earn the supportive trust of government administrator Michael Douglas. Soderbergh's talent for helping character become real in the landscapes of his films makes Haywire a gripping exploration of how to navigate the duplicity inherent in worlds where morality is superseded by the profit motive.