One of my favorite movies to come out this year is Hanna which I re-watched today on Blu-ray. I remember coming out of the theaters months ago really loving this movie so I wondered what I'd think watching it a second time. In some ways it is not as good as I remembered, but in other ways it is even better. In the end, I still think it's a great movie.
Hanna is a girl who has been trained by her father to be a deadly killer. She's lived isolated from the rest of the world her whole life preparing for the day to face her enemies. In a way it is a modern take on classic fairy tales. Hanna is sort of like the Little Mermaid who goes into land for the first time. She has learned everything about the world through an encyclopedia, including the fact that kissing requires the use of 34 facial and 112 postural muscles, yet when confronted with a boy for the very first time she is at a loss for how to act. Her father Erik represents the burly woodsman that often rescues fairy tale characters. Marissa Wiegler, the CIA agent out to get Hanna and Erik, is undoubtedly the wicked witch.
The film is rich in fairy tale motifs which themselves are often metaphors for growing up, kids stepping into a world of danger, out to fend for themselves. Here, Erik must face every parent's greatest fear, their children facing world by themselves. He has trained Hanna as best as he could. She is anxious to start her life. There is nothing left for him to teach her; she is ready.
What transpires is an almost surreal action adventure where Hanna kicks ass which, let's be honest, is why you're really watching this film. But even taking away the fantastic action sequences, you still get a wonderfully crafted story that is deceptively rich. Saoirse Ronan plays Hanna with a nuanced subtlety that makes her much more than just a bad-ass killer. Combined with the physical demands of the role, it is a pretty brilliant performance by a talented young actress.
Hanna is a highly stylized film with great visuals and an exciting electronic score by the Chemical Brothers. It does one of the better jobs in recent memory in syncing sight and sound in a film. There are three specific scenes that are really well crafted. One is a spectacularly dizzying escape by Hanna from a secret base. Another scene involves a single continuous shot of Eric Bana being followed by a group of men and ending in a tightly shot fight sequence. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I'm always impressed when I see these types of shots because they require meticulous planning and coordination and puts a lot of pressure on everybody to not mess up. It works great in this scene because it builds the growing tension as Erik realizes he is being followed. The third scene involves Hanna fighting her pursuers in a dockyard. It's a really wonderfully choreographed and exciting scene.
Earlier I mentioned that there are some things that I thought weren't quite as good this time around and some things that were even better. I remembered Hanna being much more action intensive than it actually is, but that's only because of how good those scenes are. This film is actually a lot slower than you'd expect. I might even say it doesn't have enough action sequences. However, I found these slower scenes to be even more fascinating as I really liked watching Saoirse Ronan. I think she's really great here, as are the some of the other characters. I could definitely see people's points though if they thought it the pacing was too slow. While there are less action shots than I remembered, watching them a second time made me more impressed with the work director Joe Wright put into them. The soundtrack is even better than I remembered as well. Hanna is enjoyable on several layers, first as a bonafide action flick but also in its nuanced performances and fairy tale psychology. I don't think anyone would disagree that the film is well crafted.
Grade: A
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