Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011): USA, UK, Germany
Reviewed by Richard Feilden. Viewed on DVD.
Hanna, from Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright is a slickly executed action film that picks its tropes from others films as though it is pulling ingredients from a shelf, but the resulting pie is all crunchy exciting crust with no satisfying filling.
The titular young girl (Saoirse Ronan) is trained to fight (a splash of Kick Ass) by her father (Eric Bana) in the icy wastes of Finland. He offers her a choice – stay isolated from society and live out her days gutting moose carcasses with him, or press the impossible-to-resist big red button that will bring hell raining down on her. She chooses the former and the film ends. No, wait, I’m remembering that wrong. She hits the big red button at the first opportunity and hell (in the guise of Cate Blanchett) does indeed descend. From there on in it’s running, punching, kicking time as Hanna discovers her past, her mother’s killer (a pinch of The Princess Bride’s), and Daddy’s little secret.
Hanna does pack in some impressive action sequences, including a particularly fun romp around a shipping yard with swinging containers and flying attacks from the (a helping of Batman Begins) shadows. Ronan manages to sell herself as a diminutive action hero. She also brings the necessary vulnerability to her character as she explores the world and relationships outside of her tiny family for the first time. But that is about the limit of the film’s appeal.
While the cinematography is not too bad, though it does lean on ‘Run Lola Run’esque spinning cameras, it’s nothing to write home about. From there though it is pretty much all downhill. The story contains a genetic manipulation element (a heaped cup of Soldier) that it seems almost embarrassed to get into, pushed as it is to the sidelines as soon as it has done its job in explaining exactly how this 13 year old is kicking so much ass. Familial relationships, which the film seems to hinge on, are barely explored. Bana is barely given anything to do and Blanchett’s accent wanders all over the southern States. Her back story is not so much a mystery (as in the recent Drive), but missing. There’s no room to wonder about her past, rather she seems to have sprung into life with one plot point (her Lady Macbeth styled self-inflicted gum-torture seems like a desperate attempt to add depth) in hand, ready to march off to cinematic banality.
By the end of the film, which rolls around with tedious predictability, it seems that Hanna has, quite pointlessly moved from A to A, with nothing but blood stained hands and soul to show for it. She has achieved nothing that she couldn’t have got by simply walking away from that big, red plot point button at the start of the film. Though we’re supposed to cheer her victory, it’s nothing more than a little spice on a dish of defeat. Go rent a copy of Leon: The Professional instead if you want a truly edgy, female led action thriller.
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