Skip to main content

Review: Hanna

Hanna is the story of a girl raised in complete isolation with her father Erik (Eric Bana), who is training her to be the perfect killing machine. Elsewhere, ruthless CIA operative, Marissa (Cate Blanchette, doing her best Dixie) is tracking Hanna and her father down, with what seems like an endless supply of agents to send after them.

Hanna (Saoirse Ronan, proving herself with each new role) was trained her entire life for this, but it is an entirely different scenario when she is left on her own and then the isolation and danger becomes shockingly real. Erik and Hanna represent an inordinate threat to the United States, no amount of money or minions is too high to neutralize the father/daughter duo.

If the plot seems familiar, it’s because it is: The Bourne Identity, Salt and countless other action films have used it before. The promise of Hanna lies in deconstructing that concept. Joe Wright is not the type to make mindless, shaky-cam, actioners (he is known for period pieces like Pride and Prejudice) and because of that one assumes the big appeal of directing Hanna was actively seeking to blow up the genre. That said, he knows how to make a stylish film, the muted aesthetic and rhythmic score by the Chemical Brothers blends quite nicely.

Sure, audiences love action films – they love them a lot, take a look at the final box office numbers of any given year and at least half of the top ten will be action films – but will moviegoers still be drawn in when you swap out Matt Damon/Tom Cruise/etc. with an innocent looking blue-eyed teenage girl, fresh as the new fallen snow?

Oddly enough, the last two years have been quite the year for female protagonists throwing their weight around. All of these flicks feature small girls as assassins, but where Chloe Moretz launches off into the deep end Saoirse Ronan takes it all in with her eyes and makes Hanna a true character profile. Sucker Punch also went for the same market, but where Zack Snyder failed was thinking he made a girl power film, when really he made a nice music video. Emily Browning‘s Baby Doll knew how to handle a weapon, but she never knew how to handle herself outside of being in a man’s grasp. The sexualization of the characters rendered the feminism aspect of Sucker Punch useless. Fortunately, Hanna avoids all these pratfalls.

By taking a standard formula and turning it on its head, Wright has done what few other directors have: make the lone man – in this case girl – against the giant bureaucracy relevant again. Hanna is ostensibly about loving gun-toting and kicking ass, but as Hanna discovers her own humanity in the midst of such violence, the real story comes clear.

***/****

Popular posts from this blog

The Best of the Decade

Over the last ten years, the cinema has given us a great deal to be thankful for: a rebirth of the Batman franchise, a series of examinations of what it means to live in this particular decade, and a mass of character studies whether they be animated or popcorn thrillers. As much as I have enjoyed the offerings, a list must be culled together for the end of the year. Except this year is different, this year ten films must be selected from hundreds. Below are some of the best of the aughts. Enjoy! 10) There Will Be Blood Paul Thomas Anderson's magnum opus, a scathing look at extremism in America and the evils of greed and profiteering from religion. It also features the best performance of the decade with Daniel Day-Lewis as oil-man Daniel Plainview. 9)  Up A beautiful tale that entrances all ages,  Up managed to captivate children and tell a tale that adults cherish as well. 8) The Dark Knight Maybe just a comic book film, but it is the best comic book film

Paprika vs. Inception

Months before Inception hit the theaters forums were alive with rumors that Christopher Nolan either accidentally or intentionally stole some details from another film, the Japanese anime Paprika. The biggest point of comparison for some bloggers and forum runners was the fact that both of the films featured a device that allowed a person, or people, to travel into another’s dreams and delve into their subconscious. Minor points of comparison include scenes in Paprika where the character Paprika breaks through a mirrored wall by holding her hand to it, as well as a scene where a police detective falls his way down a hallway. Claims have been made that Inception abounds with imagery similar to or exactly like the anime movie, but with the recent release of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray, and with Paprika available for several years now, an examination of the two plots can be made more fully. Let us begin with the primary claim— Inception stole the idea of a dream

Armond White's Top Ten Films on Flickchart

Armond White is film criticism’s most famous contrarian. At one moment he writes  a review declaring  Toy Story 3  to be the most obscene excuse for toy commercials  he has ever watched, and then two weeks later types out  a glowing review of  Resident Evil: Afterlife . He is of split-mind for sure. But what does his Flickchart look like? Read the rest at Flickchart !