<i>Hanna</i> (2011)

Adolescence is a difficult time in anyone’s life, regardless of circumstance (you’re welcome, I’m just a font of arcane knowledge.)  How much more confusing it must be when forced to bowhunt for basic provisions, be subject to constant attacks by a parent, and take no leave from a rustic home.  In director Joe Wright’s Hanna, such training makes the titular young woman well-equipped for dealing with a sinister government agent but truly naïve when it comes to interacting with the outside world.

Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) has lived a life of seclusion, trained by her ex-CIA father (Eric Bana) for the inevitable reckoning with her mother’s murderer (Cate Blanchett.)  After escaping her American captors, Hanna begins a long trip to Berlin with the aid of a British family.  While dispatching armed guards is little challenge for the combat prodigy, dealing with her new friends is far more complicated: her sheltered worldview and dearth of socialization make every conversation a new and often awkward experience.  By the time she reaches Berlin, Hanna finds that both her pursuer and father have actions to answer for.

Hanna tries to balance multiple sensibilities- action thriller, coming of age story- and does so with varying degrees of success.  The numerous fighting sequences are deftly handled and propulsively scored by The Chemical Brothers, yet can’t help but feel rote and derivative.  The bits of spy intrigue are hardly better.  Far more effective are the moments of revelation, of discovery, for the heroine.  A late night encounter between Hanna and a far more worldly girlfriend (Jessica Barden) is both tender and electric, while her strange visit to a fairy tale house is gorgeously expressionistic in execution.  Ronan’s magnetic performance is ferocious, wide-eyed, and ultimately what makes this patchwork tale of young adulthood a worthy experience.

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~ by Chris Vander Wal on April 11, 2011.