Hanna, the new film from Director Joe Wright, is now in theaters!
“One flip and there is no going back”. That’s what Hanna’s dad, Erik, says to her before activating a super-duper-homing-device, which will alert the minions of the C.I.A. to call out the hounds, including deadly C.I.A. agent Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett). Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) and her dad Erik Heller (Eric Bana) have been living in a snowy wonderland, somewhere near Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Heller’s idea of home schooling includes archery, weapons training (guns and knives), target shooting with live targets, and mastering all types of deadly hand-to-hand combat.
The movie, which is languidly shot by Director Joe Wright, is beautiful to look at. However, my Spider-Sense began tingling when I heard that Mr. Wright’s other movies included Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (the one without the zombies), The Soloist, and Atonement (which also included Saoirse Ronan). Ronan, as a teenage girl of undetermined age, is believable as a type of Idiot Savant whose special talents include rattling off a bunch of meaningless facts that her father badgered her to memorize during their training. She also has a very strong resemblance to actress Anne Heche. Watching her was a bit disconcerting, as I kept forgetting how old was supposed to be. Supposedly, Hanna has been preparing for the day when she will re-enter the world, to avenge the death of her mother, who was gunned down much earlier by Wiegler. However, it appears that with all of the high-octane training that Hanna was given, no one actually showed her a picture of her intended victim… oops.
“Adapt or Die” appears to be the anthem that is supposed to inspire Hanna, but it really seems more appropriate for the audience to follow. Hanna is supposed to be embarking on a dark fairy tale when she finally leaves home to go out alone into the real world. She’s initially held for questioning regarding the location of her father, who shrewdly left before the fireworks began. The plan was to meet with him in Berlin after assassinating Wiegler. After performing murder-by-proxy, she proceeds to play a deadly game of hide and seek. She escapes the U.S. Government’s bunker/fortress without a clue of the layout. She also manages to snag the evaluation made of her blood work and D.N.A.. This information divulges that she is “abnormal” – no shit. Upon her release, she finds herself in the middle of a desert that initially looked like it was near Vegas. Evidently, there’s a desert in Morocco that looks just like Death Valley – who knew? Luckily, she is still wearing her prison garb, which coincidentally provided excellent camouflage while she was trying to escape. After escaping, Hanna meets another teenage girl Sophie and her little brother Milo. Both are on holiday in a European version of a bargain basement R.V. with their British parents (played by Jason Flemyng and Olivia Williams). Sophie is one self absorbed, self-centered, narcissistic little girl; a perfect teenager. Her mother is a pompous idiot who thinks that a young girl traveling all alone, without any money, I.D., passport or adult supervision, is a great way to encourage her independence, instead of ending up as a victim of human trafficking or worse. Her husband is just clueless about how little Hanna keeps popping up in the various campsites where they arrive, without any help, car, or transporter beam. Milo is just a cute little snitch.
The movie has some beautiful scener, especially while Hanna is attempting to get from Morocco to Berlin. Her dad apparently just needed to swim across a channel to get there. Ms Wiegler, of course, hires a contract assassin: Henderson Isaacs (played by Tom Hollander) who suffers from a viscious short-guy complex, and compensates with a propensity for unnecessary ugly violence. He also whistles while he works (trying to corner his prey). It could be a nervous habit when he’s under stress while trying to capture the elusive Hanna. The real fairy tale is why no unspeakable violence is undertaken against Sophie and her parents, because certainly they deserved some punishment based upon their parenting skills alone. After spending two minutes with Sophie, you will know what I mean. Sophie also manages to fix Hanna up with a sweet guy who is passing though from Spain on a hastily-scheduled double-date. Unfortunately, Hanna almost strangles the poor guy when he’s just trying to get a kiss – and with no tongue, yikes. One can only image what his penalty would be for attempting a second.
Eventually, the action gets to Berlin. Is it me, or are C.I.A. Agents actually the new Nazis? Evidently, our government in the 90’s had time to set up a super soldier gene modification program just for girls (didn’t we learn anything from Captain America?). Ms Blanchett’s character is truly a woman who has had to make some difficult choices to advance her career. Instead of motherhood, she prefers shooting people at point blank range. More people die this way than in any other movie that I have ever seen. Hanna is followed to her rendezvous point (which, of course, is an old amusement park based upon Grimm’s Fairy Tales). This heavy-handed symbolism is reinforced by the initial scene where Hanna uses a bow and arrow to kill a large stag, missing the heart by “that much”. Oy, another lesson to learn. Anyhow, following a multitude of fight scenes involving both Hanna and her Dad (the seemingly indestructible Mr. Heller), we learn why it was time for Hanna to have flipped the switch. Maybe somebody should have considered that a young, naive, and extremely dangerous young lady should have some adult guidance and supervision while growing up? Hanna does have some real impulse control issues. At least Big Daddy in Kick-Ass tried to do that for his daughter, who seemed to be having a lot more fun than Hanna did while fighting the bad guys.
The film is visually lovely to watch, especially when the camera captures Hanna trying to fit in like any other teenage girl who has been trained to kill at the drop of a hat, or assorted other body parts. She really was very good. Unfortunately, the story line failed to adapt to any coherent plot. Why would you push a button to alert your enemies that you exist and then proceed on a quest that leads to nowhere? Aside from a cautionary tale warning of bad or self indulgent parenting, I’m not sure who was more dangerous to society: Hannah or Sophie.
ComicsOnline gives Hanna 2.5 out of 5 action movies that needed more action.
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