Hanna
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett
Director: Joe Wright
Rating: 4/5
Back in 1990, French director Luc Besson redefined the western action film by taking the damsel in distress and giving her a ruddy great big gun. Over the next two decades, movie girls have been getting deadlier by the minute, bringing as much firepower as any barrel-chested hero.
Yet with last year’s Kick Ass we saw it taken to the next level; the girl who can fight like a ninja before being old enough to buy a packet of smokes. So here comes Hanna, ready to take up the adolescent assassin mantle.
And boy does it do that.
We follow Hanna (Saoirse Ronan), a teenage girl who lives with her father Erik (Eric Bana) alone in the snowy woods of Finland. More like a drill sergeant than a doting dad, he’s training her to be as hard as the proverbial nails.
After saying she wants to leave, Erik brings Hanna a switch which will tell shady agent Marissa Weigler (Cate Blanchett) where to find them. Weigler will not stop until Hanna is dead for reasons unknown, unless Hanna gets to her first.
What follows is a chase across continents as Hanna and Erik battle Weigler and her group of horrendously dressed hit men for their freedom.
The real greatness of Hanna is the simplicity at its core. This is a fairy tale, pure and simple.
Witches and wolves now wear suits and the princess now knows how to snap a neck, but everything’s still there. The story’s maybe a little simple, but it flies along at a great pace. Not even an interlude where Hanna meets a travelling family putting the brakes on for too long.
This lets Hanna get along with the important jobs. Making an empty vessel into a human being and making sure you have a great time along the way. Both are done with style.
Saoirse Ronan owns this film, every second showing that she really does have what it takes to make it truly big. Full of innocent smiles, vacant eyes and hard hitting punches, Hanna and Ronan are a match made in heaven.
This is all helped by more than ample support for the young leading lady. Eric Bana shows his great action chops off again with quiet menace while Blanchett thrives on the role of the CIA suit with an obsession with nice shoes and dental hygiene.
The action hits as hard as its characters fists, unflinching and brutal when it wants to be. Which is most of the time. All helped by involving characters you actually like and hate, the brief moments of violence really leave a mark.
Defying its fairly small budget, Hanna borders on sensory overload. From the breath taking snow filled woods at the beginning to the head pounding Chemical Brothers music throughout, Hanna looks and sounds fantastic.
Huge credit has to go to director Joe Wright, who moves from drama to action without a hitch. Having only done classy book adaptations Pride and Prejudice, Atonement and The Soloist before, it’s great to see him spread his wings a little more.
A mix of Bourne, Run Lola Run and a whole heap of techno music, Hanna is Wright’s best film yet and proves once again what a great little star Saoirse Ronan is.
Thrilling, intense and faster than a speeding train, Hanna is defiantly worth tracking down.
Hanna is out now
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith