Hanna

Hanna (2011)

Hanna has been raised by her father in isolation near the Arctic. We see from their interactions that he has done his best to educate her and teach her how to defend herself. There is apparently someone that is trying to track Hanna down and kill her. She has gotten old enough and proficient enough to leave hiding and seek out those that would do her harm. That is exactly what she does. The rest of the movie is her being pursued by a woman named Marissa and her assassins. Why does she want Hanna dead? Seems that the girl is evidence of some wrong doing by Marissa, who doesn’t like loose ends.

This isn’t an easy review for me to write. I mean Hanna isn’t a bad movie at all. The story is interesting and I found the character of Hanna to be compelling. I also thought that the twist behind those pursuing her was satisfying and made for an interesting plot. But there is just something about the style that the filmmaker chose to present the story that bugged me. There is a very surreal feeling to the movie that put me off and didn’t allow me to get interested. Let me try and explain myself.

Let me begin by talking about the story and the characters. There are references to fairy tales that are used to setup the very last set piece of the movie. That I get, but we also get an odd character that is introduced only to do a few magic tricks and then be killed off. Plus he is just kind of creepy. While they spend time on this character they never give us a resolution or even hint at one for the family that takes Hanna in. We know they get captured, but what happens to them? It seems like the movie is more interested in introducing a character that isn’t at all important to the story then it is finishing up with a bigger question. This was annoying to me. But this wasn’t the only thing. They do a fine job of setting up the villain of the movie, Marissa, and that she wants to kill Hanna. But when she has her at gunpoint she lowers the gun and doesn’t kill her? Why not? I mean they never say it but do use a montage of headlines on the Internet to explain that she is trying to cover up some illegal genetic testing on humans. I just don’t get it. Oh and I really always hate it when a movie foreshadows the ending with something really obvious at the beginning. So yeah I saw that coming.

It just isn’t the story and it’s lose ends that bother me. The camera work is very strange. We get some shaky POV shots in many of the chase and fight sequences. That is annoying, but that isn’t the worst. There is softness to the look of the movie that was off putting. I wouldn’t say that it was out of focus, but everything just sort of bleeds together a bit. The picture isn’t crisp and it has a dreamlike quality to it. This can work well for some movies, but not this one. This is billed as an action movie, but is shot like an art house flick. That just didn’t work for me. It also takes the edge off the action. Not a good thing to do.

I could go on about the accents of the characters (Cate Blanchett seems to lose and then regain her southern twang throughout) and how they make it hard to place the character’s origins. Or how that it is very hard to get a handle on where the movie is taking place. In the end I just didn’t like Hanna. Now I see that I’m probably in the minority on this one. And I can give some props to the filmmaking and work that went into this one. But I think it is trying to be too clever. That about sums it up for me.

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer