Movie Review: Hanna

From Joe Wright, director of Atonement (2007) and Pride and Prejudice (2005), comes Hanna: a thinly disguised fairytale about a young girl trained to be an assassin chasing vengeance against a shady government agent.

Beginning in the snowy wilderness of Finland, Erik Heller (Eric Bana) and his daughter Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) live off the land until the day when Hanna believes she is ready to take on the task of hunting down Marissa Weigler (Cate Blanchett). Letting the Government capture her as her father escapes, she breaks out of a Government facility in Morocco and ends up hitchhiking with an English family. At the same time Marissa Weigler is trying to locate Erik, and sends sadistic serial jumpsuit-wearer Isaacs (Tom Hollander) to track down Hanna.

The character driven narrative is pleasingly European

Powered by wonderful performances, Ronan is totally engaging and Hollander is suitably creepy as the masochistic mercenary; Hanna is a gripping, if slightly disjointed, chase film. The locales are a little trite at times with the overtly friendly locals and native dances and songs that seem to add nothing to the plot; and the film is full with weird accents: nobody quite nailing their chosen language. However despite these minor points the film runs along at a satisfying pace and the action scenes are just as intriguing and beautifully choreographed as the tragic elements and heart that the narrative throws in for good measure. The Chemical Brother’s score is worth note too for its often tense, occasionally obtuse backing; furthering the film’s eclectic and uniquely European style. Films like 2006’s The Lives of Others and Tell No One share its stark sensibilities. Director Joe Wright’s previous productions have gone from average to overwrought, with Atonement making a modern classic into a monumentally boring exercise in missing the point, despite Hanna’s own Saoirse Ronan giving a barnstorming performance as one of literature’s greatest unwitting villains, Briony Tallis. It is interesting then that Hanna is so stylistically arresting, given the director’s penchant for by-numbers adaptations; and the film certainly sets Wright as a British director to watch.

All things considered Hanna as a chase film with heart is top tier, but given the dearth of intelligent thrillers in the cinema right now Hanna is almost required viewing for any fan of character driven action.