Saoirse Ronan

Eric Bana

Cate Blanchett

Tom Hollander

Jessica Barden

Olivia Williams

Jason Flemyng

Aldo Maland

Tim Beckmann

John Macmillan

Vicky Krieps

Martin Wuttke

Paris Arrowsmith

Paul Birchard

Christian Malcolm

Jamie Beamish

Tom Hodgkins

Vincent Montuel

Nathan Nolan

Michelle Dockery

Mohamed Majd

Sebastian Hülk

Joel Basman

Mathias Harrebye-Brandt

Álvaro Cervantes

Marc Soto

Gudrun Ritter

Barbara A. Hall

Paul Tothill

Jina Jay

Leslie Holleran

Lucie Bates

Seth Lochhead

Katie Spencer

David Farr

Alwin H. Küchler

Joe Wright

Nana Fischer

Nathaniel De'Lineadeus

Matthew Smith

Andrea King

Craig Berkey

Peter Burgis

Chris Lyons

Jan Böhme

Timo Honsa

Jeff Imada

Jason Oettle

Tsuyoshi Abe

Wojtek Prygel

Hiro Koda

Sigo Heinisch

Jörg Ellmer

Wolfgang Stegemann

Oliver Juhrs

Martin Goeres

Christian Petersson

Swen Raschka

Piet Paes

John Koyama

Todd Schneider

Stephani Burkhard

Vanessa Wieduwilt

Sam Looc

Fred Hardy

Alessija Lause

Brendan Taylor

Dixie Chassay

Marty Adelstein

Scott Nemes

Annett Schulze

Bülent Akgün

Mohamed Essaghir Aabach

David Allcock

Zineb Bendoula

Sonia Akouz

Ashish Dewan

Anna Von Gwinner

Daniel Ben Sorge

Coya Elliott

Jeanne Gilliland

Gavin Rose

Michael DiCarlo

Sarah McMurdo

Ivana Primorac

Arno Neubauer

Becki Ponting

Danny Sheehan

Sam Hoffman

Henning Molfenter

Fay Hatzius

Ahmed Hatimi

Paul Carter

Avi Salem

Carl Woebcken

Tim Grover

Yann Mari Faget

Carlos Fidel

Frank Kusche

Richard von Groeling

Christoph Heinecke

Thomas Wallis

James Cooper

Mark Appleby

Nick Foley

Dave Murricane

Roland Winke

Tony Tromp

Heidi Laitinen

Ed Simons

Heba Thorisdottir

Miguel Angelo Pate

Ed Colyer

Katja Melches

Tim Nielsen

Mathew Borrett

Elizabeth Holmes

Zakaria Alaoui

Josephine Davies

Christoph Fisser

Jane Frazer

Gabrielle Mahon

Guy Heeley

Jason Edwardh

Milan Schere

Action

Thriller

Adventure

Hanna

Holleran Company

Neunte Babelsberg Film

Sechzehnte Babelsberg Film

Twins Financing

Germany

United States of America

Travis Bell

This is a very cool movie. I wasn't totally sold on the premise based solely on the overview but there is a lot more to Hanna than just your run-of-the-mill assassin story. I didn't necessarily pick up on the "fairy tale like elements" while watching it but in hindsight, they were definitely there.

Saoirse Ronan is really, really good.

I also really enjoyed the soundtrack. The Chemical Brothers style fit perfectly with the pace and theme of the movie and got me bumpin' on more than a single occasion.

Overall, I give this movie an 8/10. I'm super interested to see what Seth Lochhead does next.

Hanna-Barbera More Like.

Hanna is directed by Joe Wright and written by David Farr and Seth Lochhead. It stars Saoirse Ronan, Eric Banna, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng and Cate Blanchett. Music is by The Chemical Brothers and cinematography by Alwin H. Kuchler.

Hanna Heller (Ronan) is a 16 year old highly trained assassin on the run from the CIA...

Heralded by some British critics as original and thrilling, Joe Wright's Hanna is neither. It's a gimmick movie dressed up as cool for the kids fodder that is both boring and cheesy. Taking the gimmick aside, that of a 16 year old crack assassin girl slotting all who come in her way, it starts off promisingly enough as we meet Hanna and her father Erik (Banna) out in the wilderness. There's training, a believable bond (both Ronan and Banna don't disgrace themselves) and the wintry landscape bites hard as we wonder what is in store.

Then the film shifts to Hanna being on the run, where the back story guff is just, well, guff, and the pace crawls to a standstill. Blanchett's (badly miscast) CIA operative is in pursuit, with that back story guff tattooed on her forehead, and it tries to gain momentum for the inevitable showdown between the big bad bitch and the little china doll killer. The Chemical Brothers drip their brand of techno beats over it, which is OK if you like that sort of thing. How cool?!

In the middle passages Hanna rides along with a Hippy family, with Flemyng also badly miscast, and there's some cack-handed attempt at humanising poor Hanna as she comes alive in the big old world. It's derivative in premise, boring in execution and designed to make teenagers think they are watching a masterpiece for their generation.

The amusement park finale is well staged, location photography is pleasing enough in that hip-euro way, and Banna and Ronan work hard to keep it from total damnation. But for much of the near two hour run time it's a butt numbing bore that has ideas far above its station. Joe Wright should stick to making Keira Knightley look good. 4/10

SAIRSE RONAN IS THE ONLY PERSON TO PLAY THIS COMPLEX LONELY YET POWERFUL CHARACTER. ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING FEMALE ASSASINS EVER TO BE PUT INTO FILM. SO YOUNG, SO SCARY. HERIOC

**_European adventure/spy thriller about a real, um, super girl_**

In the wintery wilderness of northern Finland, an ex-CIA father (Eric Bana) has been training his teen daughter, the titular character (Saoirse Ronan), to survive in a harsh world of cutthroat government agents. When the girl's ready, she's introduced to the real world where she's ruthlessly hunted down from North Africa to Germany by a mysterious intelligence operative, Marissa (Cate Blanchett), and her heavies.

What I like best about "Hanna" (2011) is its uniqueness, stylishness and picturesque globetrotting. This is top-of-the-line filmmaking with a hip, kinetic, quirky tone and superlative score, comparable to "Lucy" (2014) and Tarantino thrillers like "Kill Bill" (2003/2004). It's not a great film because there's not enough depth or mindfood, but it contains a few elements of greatness and is overall entertaining enough.

We learn Marissa is preoccupied with Hanna for unknown reasons; so, while she's an expert agent, this obsession is her kryptonite. Subtext-wise, the movie's an obvious metaphor for a child reaching adulthood and the agonies of being a loving parent (preparing them for the world, teaching them necessary skills to survive, giving them increasing freedom, being candid about the callousness of life). It's also somewhat of a fairytale about the relationship between a father and daughter. Later in the film Marissa asks Erik, "Why now?" and he simply replies, "Kids grow up."

I liked the dichotomy of the so-called normal banality of the civilians compared to the single-minded cold-bloodedness of the agents. If you object to the sometimes unwieldy fight scenes, go parent a child, wait eighteen years, then view it again and see if you feel the same. The film's often thrilling, but don't approach this as a straight action flick or you'll probably be disappointed.

There are low-key things that are clumsily explored, like the RV family perking Hanna's curiosity about life (remember she grew up isolated in the northern wilds), but this was an obvious mechanism to make us feel bad that she was on this life-or-death mission, and different than these "normal" kids, yet at the same time special and more exciting, which is how the daughter & kid brother viewed Hanna. The individual used as a tool is hardly innovative, but I nonetheless appreciated this take on it.

The film runs 1 hour, 51 minutes and was shot in Finland, Morocco and (mostly) Germany.

GRADE: B+

Hanna

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