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Parents' Guide to

Haywire

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Fight-filled adventure centers on female action hero.

Movie R 2012 93 minutes
Haywire Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 15+

Based on 5 parent reviews

nscharn55
nscharn55 Parent of 13-year-old
March 13, 2020
age 17+

EXTREMELY confusing.

This title has:

Great role models
Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
Sam M.
Sam M. Parent of baby-year-old
April 23, 2016
age 13+

Should be PG13.

No blood, cursing or sex. Some fighg scenes get rough but never bloody. A man gets shots through a pillow in the face.
See all 5 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Mallory (Gina Carano) is a super-cool secret agent with impeccable mixed martial arts fighting skills. After finishing up a job in Barcelona freeing a hostage, she looks forward to relaxing a bit. Unfortunately, her employer (Ewan McGregor) has an emergency: an easy two-day job in which Mallory must pose as the partner of agent Paul (Michael Fassbender). It's not long before Mallory realizes that the whole thing is a setup designed to get her out of the way. Now, escaping in a borrowed car with a civilian (Michael Angarano), she has only one chance to clear up the loose ends and set things right.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (5 ):
Kids say (4 ):

HAYWIRE is a pared-down, almost simplistic action movie. Director Steven Soderbergh has a wide-ranging filmography, though it can be argued that his "fun" entries (Out of Sight, Ocean's Eleven, etc.), are overall better than his "serious" movies. This one is mostly designed to showcase the beauty and power of Soderbergh's new star, female mixed martial arts fighter Carano.

Haywire features many fine, recognizable actors in small roles; their dialogue is spare and never divulges too much information or panders to the audience. (That said, the story itself is a fairly old one in this genre, and aside from the fact that Haywire is told in a non-linear fashion, it doesn't have much to add.) Soderbergh presents the fight scenes cleanly and simply, often without a music score, though he uses a funky brass score for chase scenes. However, in stripping away the fat, Soderbergh has also taken away some of the movie's emotional content; though it's a thrilling experience, it's also a somewhat surface one.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Haywire's violence. How necessary was it to include dead bodies? Could the story have worked without the killings?

  • When Carano fights, is it violent and ugly, or graceful and beautiful? Or both? Do you consider her a role model?

  • What's the difference between getting revenge and setting things right? Do the ends ever justify the means?

Movie Details

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