Connect with us

Film Reviews

REVIEW: HANNA

HANNA is the first foray into the action/thriller genre from UK director Joe Wright, the man behind ATONEMENT, THE SOLOIST and PRIDE & PREJUDICE.

The film sees Saoirse Ronan (THE LOVELY BONES) as the title character Hanna, a 16 year old girl who has spent her whole life in isolation in the wilds of Finland, with her father, Erik (Eric Bana). He’s an ex-CIA killer-man that has been on the run from fellow CIA operative, Marissa (Cate Blanchett) after disappearing with some important government research. All Hanna’s training has been leading to one moment which is to kill Marissa. Believing herself to be 100% prepared for her inevitable showdown with Marissa, Hanna leaves her life behind to do what she was born to do but must come to terms with some startling realisations about her very being.

There is and will be a lot of comparisons between HANNA and the classic 90’s flick LEON which is understandable but the comparison ends after the first fifteen minutes of the film. HANNA quickly evolves passed LEON with the training aspect and father/daughter relationship as she quickly leaves her life behind to go solo (possibly what a sequel to LEON would have been like). After that it turns into more of a revenge type action/thriller more in keeping with KILL BILL or the FEMALE PRISONER #701 film series from Japan, jumping between Hanna hunting Marissa to Marissa hunting Hanna.

Wright does an incredible job not to make this film look like any typical Hollywood actioner, particularly with regards to the ever popular shaky camera style seen in 24 and the BOURNE franchise to name a few. Wright loves to experiment with the editing, verging on creating a nauseating/roller coaster ride experience  and striking lighting which plays beautifully with the amazing Chemical Brothers soundtrack that keeps your heart beating like a race horse through scenes such as Hanna’s escape from the CIA base. Even though I could go on for hours about the fantastic visuals that Wright and cinematography from Alwin H. Kuchler (SUNSHINE) the director seems to of gotten too wrapped up in it with some over the top visuals, particularly the giant wolf’s head at the Brothers Grimm theme park, that made people in the audience laugh which I doubt was the intent.

The film benefits greatly with some comedy from the lovely English family who help out Hanna. The princple laughs brought by the great Jessica Barden playing much the same LITTLE BRITAIN-esque, Vicky Pollard type character that she played in TAMARA DREWE. Also there is a great turn from Tom Hollander, best known for his bumbling characters from IN THE LOOP and BBC show REV, as a strange perverted, German assassin/thug who whistles a sinister tune before shooting people full of arrows or beating them too death. The downside of some of the characters is that Eric Bana doesn’t live up to his characters bad ass reputation spoken about in the film. Also Cate Blanchett as the crooked CIA agent, Marissa, has been dressed up and told to act like Tilda Swinton out of MICHAEL CLAYTON with her short ginger hair, pale complexion and ruthless exterior but shitting herself inside composure.

All in all the film is excellent even with the inclusion of the gene splicing story and I’d be more than happy if it kicked off a sequel or more.

HANNA is out this Friday the 6th May 2011 check out the website here. Tell us what you think.

Paul finished is BA in Film & Broadcast Productions during the summer and has somehow landed the position of Media & Marketing Manager in the London Korean Film Festival happening this November (plug). While at University Paul found his speciality lay in Script Development, scriptwriting and Editing. He has written, edited and director a small number of not very good short films but does not let that dissuade him from powering through. After the Koreans are through with him he looks to enter the paid world of Script Development. He likes incredibly bad horror films, East Asian movies, comics and lots of other stuff.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Latest Posts

More in Film Reviews