Review of Hanna (2011) by Spangle — 05 Jan 2017

Part fairy tale, part coming of age film, part road film, part revenge thriller, part fish out of water, part spy thriller, and part superhero origin, Hanna suffers from having too many parts and influences. Divulging in all of them with fairy tale references around every corner, a girl learning who she is and growing up, a girl traveling, a girl hunting the woman who killed her parents, a girl adjusting to a new environment, a CIA agent hunting a rogue CIA agent, and a supergirl coming to terms with her abilities, this movie is an absolute mess. Tonally uneven and all over the place plotwise, the final product is an amalgamation of so many different influences, director Joe Wright struggles to keep them together and have them be coherent. Even when they are coherent, they are so obvious and hamfisted, the film fails to be enjoyable. Fortunately, stylish editing, action scenes, and cinematography elevate the film to be a visual feast, but its story is so weak and obvious, it is hard to focus on the beauty.

One of the major elements that caused me great strain was the ending, which is a book end of the beginning. In the beginning, we see Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) hunt and kill a moose. However, her arrow narrowly misses its heart so she has to chase it down and shoot it in the head. This same sequence occurs again at the end, except it is no longer a moose. I joked to myself that the film was going to have say the same lines in the beginning when the sequence began and then it actually did. I was already struggling to enjoy the film at this point, but this obvious and predictable conclusion really bothered me and cemented this as nothing but an average film. This trend obviousness continues with ever present fairy tale references such as Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), the evil witch and CIA agent, walking out of a wolf's head in an abandoned amusement park. A man who helps Hanna is most certainly out of Alice in Wonderland with mushrooms adorned his home and a bubbly personality, as well as a flower on his shirt. In moments such as these, it feels as though Wright had just binge watched a series of fairy tales and decided it was time to copy them all to one film. By the end of the film, it feels like a hollow mishmash of references, rather than a film.

These contrivance and cliches continue as the film borrows from all the genres it pretends to try and be. From a girl experiencing a lesbian encounter (it is unspoken, but it no doubt is), learning about her past, and facing challenges (except the challenges here are murderers) to her father being a rogue CIA agent with a superhuman kid that he tries to protect from those who wish to exploit her, Hanna is very cliched. It disguises this by using so many cliches and typical premises and then combining them into one, which allows the film to appear original. Unfortunately, it is anything but with each beat being incredibly predictable and telegraphed. Though Hanna is a capable fighter with punches coming from every direction, Wright shows that he is only capable of slow and obvious punches to the face. Once you start blocking these punches, he has no idea where to go.

One of the reasons why this film may have left me feeling so cold is the dreamlike atmosphere. I often love dreamlike atmospheres such as that in Drive (which has also been called a fairy tale), but films such as Drive become surreal. There are moments where the director winks at you and lets you know it is a fairy tale. Wright does not do this. He wants to have his cake and eat it too with a dreamlike atmosphere and a gritty and realistic film. This leaves the film feeling tonally jumbled even before we begin seeing the cliches and various genres the film wants to operate within.

The film does elevate itself a bit though with great acting. Saoirse Ronan is a brilliant actress as she has shown in films such as Atonement, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Brooklyn. Hanna joins those films in showcasing her tremendous ability. Playing a cold and calculating super soldier in this film, Ronan is steely throughout and, yet, in little flashes exposes her youth and humanity. Simply a young girl dealt an impossible hand, Hanna is incredibly sympathetic, even if she is so violent and brutal. Ronan captures this incredibly well. As the evil witch, Cate Blanchett is brilliant as always. If she ever turned in a bad performance, it would be noteworthy because she has never not wowed me in a role. This film is no exception. Eric Bana is largely ineffectual with him merely channeling Arnold Schwarzenegger with his accent. I kept waiting for him to yell "get to the choppa'" with the way he was speaking.

A tonally jumbled, uneven, and hamfisted story about a girl who must overcome the forces of evil to enter adulthood, the film tackles so many elements it is hard to enjoy. Though its action set pieces and cinematography have moments of brilliance, Joe Wright is simply not talented enough to pull this off.