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EDITOR'S PICK
Rating:
***1/2
Hollywood is always on the lookout for deadly femme fatales who can give men a
run for their action and testosterone. Prolific director Steven Soderbergh`s
third 2011 release "Haywire" manages this with a film whose story is
average, but which he compensates with his neat, slick direction bound to appeal
to both men and women.
After a successful European mission, Mallory (Gina Carano) - an ex-marine who
does black-ops for a private company, is surprised by her next assignment: of
being arm-candy for a British spy. Her suspicion is proven correct as she finds
police chasing her for a murder she has not committed. Can a lone woman fight
off an entire army of men out to get her?
In Mallroy, director Steven Soderbergh creates a woman on the lines of Jason
Bourne, but unlike our amnesic spy, she has no identity crisis. Like most women,
she knows exactly who she is and she will break your neck if you try to prove
otherwise. For she is dangerous and armed, heck she`s more dangerous unarmed.
She is a damsel who can rescue a man in distress.
Don`t tail her for she knows how to tail you back. She`s not unreasonable but if
you get unreasonable with her, even He - your masculine god - cannot save you.
"Haywire" is in the mould of modern action thrillers, where unlike
films of the past, it is more about throwing good grapples in hand to hand
combats than it is about shooting. Even your once `shaken but not stirred` James
Bond now gets his hands dirty in parkour chases and fist fights. So how can the
femme fatale of the 21st century be any different?
You thus have Mallroy punch, kick, lock hands and legs of an opponent, crawl
under a car, jump over fences and through rooftops...basically doing everything
you would never expect a girl like her to do. And therein it breaks stereotypes
of women in cinema, never mind that the story and the final obvious mystery is
not half as good as the action and direction.
Soderbergh, who has always been a lover of women as evident from his previous
films, makes careful efforts to show the superiority of his woman, both moral
and physical, in different ways. For instance, Mallroy is never unreasonable and
it is always the men who throw the first punch, or coffee, trying to catch her
unawares. Her fight then is one of mere self-defence in which she recovers from
the initial shock to shock the daylights of her men.
Also Mallroy is not a big talker, like the silent `male` heroes in the action
films of the 1970s. She listens and observes, and when required, kicks or shoots
her way out of a jam. She`s a doer not a mere talker.
In mixed-martial arts champion Gina Carano, Hollywood might finally have found
their first hand-to-hand combatant that will draw in the crowds. All you ladies
out there, go hoot for this first female modern martial artist in cinema. For
every James Bond or Jason Bourne, you now have a Hanna or Mallory.