Hanna has an interesting premise and a great trailer, not to mention a very watchable young actress in Saoirse Ronan. It has some gripping action sequences and creative, occasionally beautiful photography. All this is enhanced (mostly) with a lively score by the electronica/psychedelica duo, the Chemical Brothers. The movie is entertaining enough to keep the audience interested to the very end, and yet most will walk out of the theater unsatisfied. It coulda been a contender, instead of just a bum, which is what it is, more or less.Perhaps the most egregious problem is with the story itself. I want to believe that there was a coherent narrative to begin with. If so, large pieces of the plot were unaccountably left on the cutting room floor or snipped out of the screenplay to save time or stay within budget. Or maybe the story never was properly fleshed out, and the filmmakers just figured we wouldn’t notice. Well, I saw this with four other people, and everyone noticed.
The film begins somewhere in “the wilds of Finland” according to the official story line, far from civilization. Sixteen year old Hanna (Ronan) has lived her whole life here. Her father, Erik (Eric Bana), has trained her to be strong, self sufficient and smart. Also, to fight and kill like a trained assassin. Which, it turns out, is exactly what she is. They live in a little cabin, without electricity or other amenities of the modern age. It’s snowy and bitter cold. In every scene Hanna and her dad are dressed in furs and thermal clothing. Until, that is, it is time to leave.
Erik has trained Hanna her entire life for one mission: to kill Marissa (Cate Blanchett) – an evil CIA agent. Erik informs Hanna that if she doesn’t get Marissa first, Marissa will kill her. (He doesn’t explain why – the reason is revealed later). He pulls out a little black box, with a switch. When Hanna is ready, she just needs to flick the switch, and the box will become an electronic beacon, summoning Marissa’s people, who will bring Hanna to her quarry. How the battery has lasted for fifteen years is not explained. Why Eric kept such a device all these years is not explained. (Had he been plotting this since Hanna was a baby?) Erik takes his leave. They will rendezvous in Berlin. Erik changes into a three piece suit and walks off into the frozen woods. No overcoat, no boots, no hat. Hey, wait a minute … how does that work? Won’t he freeze? How far does he have to walk? Why a suit all of a sudden? Sorry – just suspend your disbelief, people.
The CIA guys do show up, in helicopters, scores of them, armed to the teeth. They’re hunting Erik but find Hanna, who takes out a few, but is subdued. She awakens in a small underground room. Florescent lighting, steel walls. She knows not where she is, yet she is calm. A woman posing as Marissa comes in. We know she’s an imposter but Hanna doesn’t. Hanna kills her [this is not much of a spoiler, as this scene is in the official preview], and all hell breaks loose. The next ten minutes comprise the first of several great action/chase sequences in this picture, as Hanna throttles a dozen or more soldiers/guards, and wends her way through passageways and heating ducts to make her escape.
When Hanna finally pokes her head out of the duct she has crawled through she finds herself in the middle of an endless desert. It’s a stunning contrast to the arctic world in which we (and Hanna) have been immersed until now. It is hot, desolate and beautiful. Not a building in sight. (Hmmm … how’s that possible?) Implausibly, Hanna hitches a ride on the undercarriage of a Hummer that happens by, and eventually, with the help of some American tourists, makes her way to a town. Turns out she’s in Morocco. Why the CIA has an underground facility in the Moroccan Sahara is not explained.
Up until now, Hanna has taken in every situation with an almost unearthly calm. But when she manages to get a room in a local hotel, she goes through an almost slapstick sequence, in which everything unnerves her: light switch, electric kettle, tv, ceiling fan – until she finally flees in a panic. When she later returns, however, the appliances are off and her earlier experience apparently forgotten. Anyway, Hanna has to make her way to Berlin and she does so through a series of implausible events, journeying briefly through Spain and France - just for the heck of it, apparently. She is followed and harried along the way by Marissa’s hired henchmen, led by the sadistic, imperturbable Isaacs (Tom Hollander). Marissa has a reason for not using CIA to get the girl, but it’s unconvincing; particularly in light of the fact that Hanna has just offed quite a few Americans in her escape from captivity.
The underlying premise of Hanna stems from a little sci-fi back-story, which is revealed about half way through. I won’t reveal it here, but suffice to say, it is murky. The back-story helps explain Erik’s motivation and why Marissa wants Erik dead, but actually confuses us about Marissa’s interest in Hanna. Does she want to kill her or save her? By the conclusion of the picture, we still don’t know. This is not a tantalizing mystery – it’s just bad storytelling.
There are other holes in this tale, but you get the point.
Saoirse Ronan is believable as Hanna. Her face is interesting - her blue eyes in that pale face are amazing - and you want to root for her, notwithstanding the plot deficits or the fact that she is a killer. She looks good as the kick-ass girl, but who is this person? All we get is a cartoon heroine, with no soul, no heart, no truth revealed. A closer examination of Hanna’s struggle to become a real person might have enriched this film. She’s an innocent, raised in isolation, fighting an alien world, struggling to discover her humanity and to learn how to connect with other human beings for the first time. Some token scenes are included to develop these themes, but they are cloying and superficial. They feel tacked on and insincere. As a result, they are at cross-purposes with the forward motion of the film and a distraction from the action.
Eric Bana looks good. Not much acting here, though. And when he opens his mouth, we get his vaguely central-European accent recycled from Munich (2005). Cate Blanchett has similar problems – more surprising in her case. Her Marissa is a cross between the prim, amoral Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) in Michael Clayton (2007) and the over-the-top Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) in From Russia With Love (1963). Marissa is supposed to be from Georgia (USA), and Blanchett slips in out of a southern accent throughout the picture for no discernable reason. Blanchett isn't given a whole lot to work with, but I’m thinking Tilda might have been a better casting choice.
Hollander’s portrayal of the villainous Isaacs is odd and derivative. Disturbingly, Isaacs’ insinuated homosexuality seems designed to make him a creepy character. He looks kind of like Elton John, but wears workout clothes throughout. Like Peter Lorre’s pedophile in M (1931), he whistles – not In the Hall of The Mountain King, but something more disco; this quirk is also reminiscent of Malcolm McDowell’s Alex, the psychopath in Clockwork Orange (1971), who warbles Singing In The Rain while committing his ultraviolence. Like Alex, gratuitous violence is Isaacs' forte.
In current release.
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