Hanna

Title: Hanna
Directed by: Joe Wright
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett
Brief Description: A rogue CIA agent and his very special daughter resurface after nearly a decade in hiding.
My Rating: 4 out of 5

What is "Hanna" about? Well, a rogue CIA agent, Bana, is in hiding with his very blonde and slightly creepy daughter, Ronan. They are hiding from the Agency and an agent named Marissa, Blanchett, for reasons unknown. Bana trains his daughter to be the ultimate spy. She can blend in, fight to the death (and win), and has memorized an entire encyclopedia. She's also barely a teenager. Father and daughter have a plan to kill Marissa (again the reason is unknown) and one day they decide to resurface. Why they do this, I don't know. Seems to me they could have moved to any city in the world and they never would have been found. But, that's beside the point. Once they resurface, the chase is on!

And that's really what this movie is. A great big chase scene. Ronan is chased across two continents, by some sketchy looking dudes. Bana is chased through some scenery by some suit wearing dudes. There are some fight scenes. There aren't, however, any car chases or explosions, so one might call this an intellectual film.

If you detect a note sarcasm in my writing it's because I'm frustrated by this movie. Don't get me wrong, it was an interesting movie, and I adore Joe Wright, but I just don't get the point of the plot! And that frustrates me to no end! I don't get why it was so important to kill the father and the daughter from Marissa's point of view. And I don't get why it was so important to kill Marissa from the father and daughters point of view. Was it revenge? Was it supposed to be a preemptive thing? I mean, Marissa didn't even know they were still alive until THEY ANNOUNCED IT TO THE WORLD! By that logic, they could have stayed hidden, in any city in the world, and lived happy, normal lives, which one assumes was what they wanted.

I mentioned before that I adore the director, Joe Wright. He always makes beautiful, layered movies and this one is no exception. There was something off and dark about the main character, Hanna, and Wright brought that to many aspects of the movie as well. You could sense it in the locations he chose to film in, what little tid-bits we were given about other characters, and even in the costume choices. Everything was just a little off, a little dark. A recurring theme throughout the movie was that of the Grimm's fairytales. If you've ever read the original Grimm's tales you'll know that they are fantastical and yet quite dark. For example, in Cinderella, the step-sisters cut off their own toes and heels to try and fit their feet into the glass slipper. This movie had that same Grimm fairytale-like feel. It was fantastical, mythical, and slightly dark.

At the end of the day, Hanna is an interesting movie. There is some great acting on Ronan's part and some beautiful film-making on Wright's. You may or may not have the same problems with it that I did, but if you look at it objectively you just can't deny it's artistry. I recommend it for it's many layers. You can enjoy it's surface (the action), but you can also delve a little deeper if you wish and enjoy the many layers Wright has built into it.