{"id":15929,"date":"2011-10-10T11:18:11","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T19:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=15929"},"modified":"2011-10-10T11:18:11","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T19:18:11","slug":"hanna-joe-wright-2011-usa-uk-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=15929","title":{"rendered":"Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011): USA, UK, Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>Hanna<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

The titular young girl (Saoirse Ronan) is trained to fight (a splash of Kick Ass) by her father (Eric Bana)\u00a0 in the icy wastes of Finland.\u00a0 He offers her a choice \u2013 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.\u00a0 She chooses the former and the film ends.\u00a0 No, wait, I\u2019m remembering that wrong.\u00a0 She hits the big red button at the first opportunity and hell (in the guise of Cate Blanchett) does indeed descend.\u00a0 From there on in it\u2019s running, punching, kicking time as Hanna discovers her past, her mother\u2019s killer (a pinch of The Princess Bride\u2019s), and Daddy\u2019s little secret.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Ronan manages to sell herself as a diminutive action hero.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But that is about the limit of the film\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

While the cinematography is not too bad, though it does lean on \u2018Run Lola Run\u2019esque spinning cameras, it\u2019s nothing to write home about.\u00a0 From there though it is pretty much all downhill.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Familial relationships, which the film seems to hinge on, are barely explored.\u00a0 Bana is barely given anything to do and Blanchett\u2019s accent wanders all over the southern States.\u00a0 Her back story is not so much a mystery (as in the recent Drive), but missing.\u00a0 There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 She has achieved nothing that she couldn\u2019t have got by simply walking away from that big, red plot point button at the start of the film.\u00a0 Though we\u2019re supposed to cheer her victory, it\u2019s nothing more than a little spice on a dish of defeat.\u00a0 Go rent a copy of Leon: The Professional instead if you want a truly edgy, female led action thriller.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden. \u00a0Viewed 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}