Pick of the Week: Hanna

By Horacio Garcia

There is something disturbingly cold in Saoirse Ronan’s eyes. We saw it in The Lovely Bones where she played the victim of a serial killer and is exploited to the max in Joe Wright’s globe-trotting thriller Hanna.

Even though it begins as a cold-blooded spy movie, Hanna suddenly becomes more and more a              coming-of-age movie and then it turns sharply again and ends literally with a bang.

The movie tells the story of the first mission of 16 year-old Hanna, who has been trained by her father in Finland to become a cold-blooded assassin.

Hanna, played by Saoirse, takes the prize. Erick Bana (who plays Hanna's father) is OK all 15 minutes he’s on screen, but we’ve already seen his man-with-a-troubled-mind character in Troy and The Time Traveler’s Wife. Banna remains in his comfort zone for most of the film. Cate Blanchett goes at it professionally but her character is a little distant. I just don’t think she looks or sounds like a Texan CIA agent.

On the other hand, the secondary characters are brilliantly written and very well performed. Olivia Williams, Jason Fleming and especially Jessica Bardem who play the family of British tourists that befriend Hanna, are the best of the movie.

Ms. Bardem manages to be funny, idiotic, lovely, annoyingly irresponsible and a loyal friend, all at the same time in the best portrait of a typical teen age girl I’ve seen in years. The contrast between the cold deadly Hanna and the warm brainless Sophie is what gives real charm to what otherwise would be another spy/revenge/action movie.

Wright certainly has a distinctive hand for action dramas as anybody can see in his critically acclaimed Atonement. This same tempo, somewhat slower than what we are used to in Hollywood, gives Hanna a little European flavor.

Wright, who was born to a family of actors and puppeteers, literally grew up on the stage, and got his training directing short fiction and music clips. That combination of the most classical formation possible and the fastest creative environment there is holds the secret to his success.

The locations of Hanna are also the open kind he prefers; the film begins in the north of Finland, jumps to Morocco and then takes a detour through Europe all the way to Germany.

Maybe the best achievement Wright can claim is that he never loses the sort of intimate touch present in all of his movies. The truth is that Wright has been tackling some very complex stories with the steadiness of a master and the truth is that not everybody can take on Pride and Prejudice and get good reviews.

I give Hanna 4 stars out of 5 for some small weaknesses in the story and a not-very-imaginative final solution but overall it's a great cinematic experience.

Tags Cate Blanchet, Cine Pick of the Week, Erick Bana, Hanna, Jason Fleming, Jessica Bardem, Joe Wright, Movies, Olivia Williams, Saoirse Ronan