Saturday, January 28, 2012

Haywire

Because so many people seem to care about it, let's address the elephant in the room: is the voice in the film of Haywire's star, Gina Carano, really hers?

Yes and no. Director Steven Soderbergh said the following in an interview here:

That's not really her speaking voice. We spent a lot of time in post working really hard on her voice, and we used every trick imaginable that's used on records today — in the editing, in the pitch. We combined five different readings in one sentence. We wanted her to sound different — not like Gina, but like her character, Mallory Kane. So that took a lot of work, and we worked really hard on it. That was the point of it. Everyone under the age of 30 is terrified of Gina, but Mallory is someone new.
Now, to a more important question: does that matter at all?

No. Hell no.

What matters is that Gina Carano kicks ass, and Haywire is a fun ride in large part because of her menacing (and occasionally sexy) presence. She strides through the movie beating the living shit out of one Hollywood male star after another, a larger than life avatar of the power of women in film today, should we want to go there.

Nah, let's not go there.

She's a great female action lead in a fun B movie that has all the cool camera work of any Soderbergh film. Her acting is on par with that of most action leads, which is to say that she has few expressions and uses one, her scowl, most of all. I can live with that.

Haywire won't win any awards, but if you're in the mood for nonstop action with a new, fresh star, see it.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

This is such a guy movie. Bitchin' fighting female lead kicking cocky fighting male butts. The director certainly knows his audience. Thanks for the review, but I think I will watch The Notebook again. Ha ha.

steveburnett said...

Given the extensive work in post-production on her voice, I would
like to see an Oscar nomination in sound design for 2012.

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