April 8, 2011

Hanna - 2011

Director: Joe Wright
Writers: David Farr & Seth Lochhead
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Jason Flemyng, Olivia Williams


"Sometimes, children can be bad people too." Hanna (Ronan), has been raised as an assassin by her ex-CIA father Erik (Bana). On the day she finally feels ready, Hanna flicks a switch to send out a signal to Marisa Wiegler (Blanchett), the agent responsible for her father's exile, and finally exact her revenge.


I'll be the first to decry popular opinion and state my opposition to Atonement, although that was mostly based on some third act script issues, as it's a great film technically (oh my god that tracking shot of Dunkirk); The Soloist meant a great deal more to me. Hanna...falls somewhere between the two. Ronan's proving to be one of the great up-and-coming talents in the business, and Bana's agent character utilizes his great force and physicality (I still can't believe he ever played Bruce Banner). Blanchett, normally at the top of her game, has a very sloppy Southern accent, and I personally expect better from an Oscar winner. However, the action scenes are spectacular (which is what the movie's about, in the end), the Chemical Brothers' score works really well, and there are some very funny fish-out-of-water moments stemming from Hanna's father not educating her on some social graces, as well as an amazing scene showing how easily overwhelmed someone who's barely heard of electricity can get when they encounter a room with lights, fans, a phone, and a TV for the first time. The big flaw with the movie, though, was the major plot point: I didn't feel like it was ever made wholly clear why Blanchett's character had to die. This guy and his daughter have literally vanished off the CIA's radar into the Great White North (Scandinavia somewhere, I think). They could rejoin society anytime they want with new identities, and she'd be none the wiser! Trip the signal, then run as fast as you can far, far away. You'd be home free...right? B

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