Hanna Reviewed

Owing a huge debt to Luc Besson’s Leon and the Bourne Trilogy, Joe Wright’s Hanna features a young female killer being chased across the globe by a mysterious corporation hell-bent on killing her and her father. With a strong cast (Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander), a well-regarded director and a soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers, surely this action romp cannot fail?

Unfortunately, it does fail – although not entirely. It’s a movie which opens strongly as our anti-heroine, Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) and her father Erik (Bana) stalk each other around a snowy woodland playing an increasingly dangerous game of cat and mouse. As it transpires, Erik is trying to toughen up and train his daughter ahead of a mysterious mission which appears to threaten both of their lives. It’s beautifully framed and well filmed, enigmatic and action packed. It’s also the film’s highpoint – things rapidly begin to unravel.

A bizarre and inexplicable plot device (a switch which needs to be flicked) sets the wheels in motion for battle for life against Blanchett’s CIA agent Marissa. From here on in it becomes a fairly standard action flick with a clichéd collection of villains on Hanna’s trail through a variety of landscapes and set-pieces. These stereotypical goons have a variety of dreadful accents. Hollander’s cartoon German is probably the most grating – but only because Blanchett only remembers to use her southern drawl intermittently. A hippy family with whom Hanna hitches are also intensely irritating, although this is (hopefully) deliberate. They serve the plot well and add a little humour – Jessica Barden is charmingly obnoxious as daughter Sophie.

What elevates Hanna from being a distinctly average movie is the central character. Saoirse Ronan is a mesmerising presence – angelic and ghostly, strong but vulnerable. That a sixteen year old actress manages to carry such a flawed movie single handedly is quite an achievement. It helps that hers is the only well written character in the piece. Having lived an isolated existence in the woods her naive wonder at the wider world is an interesting counterpoint to her brutality and killer instinct.

The Chemical Brothers score is absolutely faultless as far as the duo are concerned. Their music has always had an epic, filmic aspect to it – especially in their ability to change tempo and build to dramatic crescendos. Sadly, they are rather unsubtly used here – as soon as you hear one of their songs beginning you know an action scene is on the way. This kind of signposting is unnecessary.

That kind of clumsiness becomes ever more apparent as the film lurches towards an inevitable and predictable conclusion. Gaping plot-holes and an utterly contrived ending ensure that the film peters out pathetically compared to its powerful opening.