Hanna

Hanna is one of those movies which sneak up on you out of nowhere. The trailer came into circulation about a month ago and it was more than enough to convince me that this one would be worth a look.

PLOT: Sixteen year old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) lives in a snowy forest with her father Erik (Eric Bana). Hanna has no friends but can kill a deer with a crossbow which automatically takes me out of the movie to focus on the other crossbow wielding badass which is in my life.
Hanna has been trained by Erik to kill Marissa (Cate Blanchett) an operative of a nameless organisation which has genetically modified babies and turned them into super soldiers. Hanna kills the wrong person. Erik defies the laws of geography and swims from a snowy forest to a Moroccan beach. There is science but it is never explained. Hanna finds a friend. I hate the Chemical Brothers. Hanna kills the correct person. END PLOT

Hanna is told from the point of view of a sixteen year old rather than an aged action stars and this gives us a fresh outlook to a tired arc. Whilst fleeing for her life Hanna has her first kiss, makes friends and discovers that there is life outside of training and learning Arabic.

The “being chased by a nameless agency” plot isn’t exactly an original concept but what makes Hanna different as it went for intelligent casting. Saoirse Ronan is one of the best young actresses around and carries the lead role exceptionally well - she has a great career ahead of her.

Eric Bana has rode the wave of being the best thing in Troy for years now and it was nice to see him pop up in Hanna. Cate Blanchett is fine in an underdeveloped role - we are told she is the head of the modified baby organisation and also that her decision alone shut it down but this is as much information as we are given.

There is a growing craze of music groups composing film scores. Daft Punk came first with Tron and although their computery sound suited the film I hated the soundtrack as much as I hated the film.

Hanna has followed suit and brought The Chemical Brothers on board. Their music was effective in a few of the fight scenes but there was no distinguishable theme and it certainly didn’t have a strong hook. The Chemical Brothers score wouldn’t be out of place in an underground rave circa the mid 90’s and frankly that is where they should have stayed.

Hanna was directed by Joe Wright the director of Pride and Prejudice and Atonement. Atonement contains one of my favourite shots in a movie - the long flowing single camera shot around the beach in Dunkirk. Hanna also contained this style of shot during a fight scene in an underground train station but it didn’t have the same wow factor as Atonement.

Hanna is a solid film which shows that Joe Wright can move away from the costume drama and confirms the class of Saoirse Ronan. It gets a 7/10. I really enjoyed the film but there was just something missing which I cant put my finger on.