A nice action flick whose plot closely follows The Bourne Identity, with a teenage girl killing machine fighting against corrupt elements of the CIA who are responsible for creating her. Great movie? Certainly not. Hanna teases some larger ideas of coming of age, fairytales, family, violence but these just add a rich background to the film. This film has nothing great to say and one will not learn anything from watching it (except perhaps about filmmaking). Are there holes in the plot? Sure. Plenty. Is the formula of precocious young girl as a killer a little bit of a tired? Certainly it has been done before. Yet against these weaknesses the filmmakers’ considerable craft distinguishes Hanna from the standard summer action flick.
The pacing perhaps best shows the difference between a filmmaker like Wright and a hack like Michael Bay. The only time a Bay movie slows down is for poorly phrased exposition or weak character development. Then it’s on to the action. In films like Transformers and the like, such scenes seem obligatory parts that are forced into the action. Wright knows how and when to let a scene play out. One example finds Hanna on a date with an older boy as they watch a flamenco group perform around a campfire. It works because the music is powerful, the human voice contrasts with the film’s electronic score (excellently done by the Chemical Brothers), the scene plays on Hanna’s never having heard music, which frankly could have been a bit much (a girl who has never seen the world adapts so quickly to all these new experiences?). But the scene isn’t forced and Hanna’s wonder at hearing music isn’t overplayed; Wright just shoots the singing and dancing, with only a couple of quick reaction shots during the two or so minutes. It certainly isn’t the type of pause in the action that a studio would allow in a tent pole summer film.
The camera work is excellent throughout. Including at least one remarkable tracking shot seems to be a hallmark of Wright’s. The Atonement tracking shot was technically amazing and has been much praised but also critiqued for being unnecessary and indulgent. Hanna includes another technically excellent tracking shot, although not at the level of complexity as the one from Atonement. Hanna’s tracking shot follows the father as he walks out of an airport, continues down the street, realizes he is being followed, goes down an escalator into the subway, and then in the station kicks the shit out of three men. Much like this film, the shot won’t be long remembered because it has no larger significance. It is a bit of craft that functions well in film and provides a contrast to the rapid cuts in other scenes.
Saoirse Ronan is excellent and plays the teenager as killer role to the full. Eric Bana is perfectly fine as the dad. Cate Blanchett’s evil CIA operative is the weakest character in the film. Blanchett plays individual scenes well but her character’s motivations and developed rather unevenly.
The plotting has major logical weaknesses but the screenplay gets a couple of key things right. First, the film is willing to kill off the father. No forced happy endings here. Second, the ending and particularly the final line of dialogue directly refer back to the opening scene but the connection is forced. Wright doesn’t linger on it which helps avoid making the bookend quote feel forced. The link between the quotes also serves a purpose. In the third act, the film shows Hanna perhaps having a revelation and giving up violence. The film toys with taking that sentimental path but the end show that Hanna is what she has been made to be. At the end of the film Hanna is who she was at the beginning of the film, a trained killer.
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