(Long Island, N.Y.) Hanna is one of those quirky European action movies that occasionally find themselves getting a wide release in the States. Personally, I happen to like these kinds of movies. Remember how I’m always going on and on about Liam Neeson’s wonderful 2008 film Taken? French-made, baby. American action movies haven’t had teeth since the glory days of the late 80’s/early 90’s, but over in Europe, they know how to make a bad-ass flick with personality. Hanna is such a film, directed by Brit Joe Wright and starring Irish teen actress Saoirse Ronan (don’t ask me how to pronounce it) in the title role as a girl raised in the snowy wilderness of Finland (the Death Metal capital of the world, I believe) and trained to be a brutal assassin by her father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana).
The reason they’re living so completely off the grid (hell, Hanna has never experienced television or even seen electricity itself at work in any way) is that they’re hiding from Marissa Viegler (Cate Blanchett, aping what I think is a supposed to be a bad Southern U.S. drawl), an evil CIA agent who’s very interested in tracking down Erik and his deadly little daughter for reasons unknown.
One day, after Hanna has finally proven herself capable of kicking daddy’s posterior multiple times (after a series of Kato-style sneak attacks) after a short lifetime of daily, intense training, Erik decides she’s ready to pursue the goal she’s been specifically trained for: killing Marissa Viegler, who had murdered Hanna’s blue-haired hippie of a mother many years ago. Erik presents Hanna with a GPS that, when activated, will enable Viegler to track her down. Erik splits the scene, leaving Hanna to be apprehended by some commandos. In custody, the sweet-looking little girl succeeds in her mission of killing Viegler by snapping her neck…or so she thinks. In reality, it was a double sent in by the savvy Viegler, who apparently knows something about Hanna and her abilities that we the audience aren’t privy to at this point of the movie.
So, thinking she’s killed Viegler, Hanna escapes from the compound where she was being held to rendezvous with her father in Germany, but not before discovering a medical file on her, revealing that her DNA is “abnormal.” What exactly does that mean? I don’t know, but maybe it has something to do with why Hanna can beat up adult men who outweigh her by over 100 pounds. Anyway, Hanna is left to ponder this while hitching a ride with a family of tourists, not knowing that the quite-alive Viegler has summoned some of her deadliest killers to rub the girl out.
Hanna was a really solid little movie. I had read an early review comparing it to the great Luc Besson’s 1994 masterpiece The Professional (AKA Leon), and while I wouldn’t go that far (actually, I wouldn’t even come close to going that far), Hanna still manages some of the feats achieved by Besson’s film: charming (if not very fleshed-out) main characters, overall quirkiness, and brutal violence. There’s not much at all to the story (and that’s being kind), and there’s points where the proceedings drag a tad (but these instances don’t last long), but overall, the movie is well-paced, filmed with a stylish flair, and scored amazingly by British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers, who supply a pumping techno beat to the proceedings.
Acting-wise, Hanna is solid. Saoirse Ronan (who had previously starred in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones) is an interesting casting choice for the title character. She’s quite talented in front of the camera, no doubt, but the thin, pale, delicate and wide-eyed actress is probably the last person you’d ever suspect of being able give you a proper beat-down; this makes it all the more surprising (and fun) when she does so. Eric Bana always brings the goods, no matter if he’s playing The Hulk, a Romulan, or a rogue ex-CIA agent training his kid to be Bruce Lee with an attitude. He lays on a thick accent here (I think it’s supposed to be Scottish? Or Cockney? Not sure), which is a lot more effectively maintained than Cate Blanchett’s wanna-be Cajun speech patterns. And speaking of Blanchett, she ended up being the only actor in the movie that just did nothing for me. I’m not sure if it was her bad accent, her character’s wishy-washy attitude (she seems all evil and corrupt, but several lame attempts are made to try and “humanize” her, which just don’t work), or perhaps that Blanchett was just phoning it in, but I found her the least compelling part of the picture.
Oh, and the old guy living in the mushroom house…where the hell did they find that weirdo? Sheesh.
So, Hanna is good. Not great, not amazing, and certainly not a match for Luc Besson’s The Professional like one insane reviewer claimed, but I still enjoyed it. It’s offbeat and unique (like many European movies are), and despite the threadbare story and poorly-developed characters, Hanna succeeds because of its personality and fluid action scenes. Check it out.
