Movie Review Hanna

Hanna (2011) 

Directed by Joe Wright 

Written by Seth Lochhead, David Farr 

Starring Saorise Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng 

Release Date April 8th, 2011 

Published April 7th, 2011 

Hanna (Saorise Ronan) is a teenage girl living in the forest with her survivalist father (Eric Bana). Eric Heller has dedicated his life to teaching his daughter skills needed not just for survival in the wild but survival in a world where unseen forces are trying to kill her. Eric's motto, drilled into Hanna's brain daily, is 'adapt or die.' The incongruity of such harsh words coming from the mouth of a lithe blonde 15 year old girl is jarring as so much of the movie Hanna is jarring.

Directed by Joe Wright Hanna is an exercise in style and substance. Wright, best known for his Oscar nominated "Atonement," brings a great deal of action movie style to "Hanna" with long, uncut takes that have the camera following characters through complex choreographed fights that are refreshing compared to most other action movie director's affinity for  super fast edits that hide the action behind layers of trickery.

As I mentioned, there is also an experimental substance as well. Unlike the brainless titillation of "Sucker Punch," "Hanna" takes a teenage girl with unique fighting skills and examines the effect such disturbing ability might have on a girl rather than dressing her in fetish gear and exploiting her nubile flesh. This examination does not come with long periods of expository dialogue but rather plays on the extraordinary face and in the actions of star Saorise Ronan.

Matching Ronan's superb performance is that of Cate Blanchett as calculated C.I.A killer Marisa Wiegler. Wiegler was Eric Heller's handler on a black op that abruptly ended. Both Hanna and her late mother were part of this aborted operation and when Heller tried to keep them from being eliminated, Wiegler tried to kill him and did kill Hanna's mother. Blanchett's deep cold performance has odd nuance and a chilling resolution. This is a relatively small role for such a well known actress but Blanchett treats the part with the seriousness of a Bond villain and the complexity of the kind of part that could earn her an Oscar nomination.

The rest of the cast, including Jason Flemyng, Olivia Williams and Jessica Barden as members of a family who befriend Hanna on her journey from Morocco to Germany to the German thugs that Marisa hires to capture Hanna and kill anyone she comes in contact with, are exceptionally well placed within this unique story. Tom Hollander is especially chilling as the constantly whistling killer, Isaacs, whose ungodly creepiness leads to a pair of exceptional final act scenes.

Complex and exceptionally well directed, "Hanna" is a real stunner.