Joe Wright’s “Hanna” plays like its Chemical Brothers soundtrack; cool and familiar techno rhythms punctuated by a few pulse pounding moments wrapped in a carnival like assassin thriller that ends where it began, but never really takes you anywhere.
Saoirse Ronan (“The Lovely Bones”) plays the 16 year old title girl in question, raised to be a lean killing machine by her father Erik Heller (Eric Bana) somewhere below the Arctic Circle, ala “Rocky IV” style. It seems Heller was a former CIA operative who escaped into hiding with his daughter after a rather nasty falling out with his supervisor Marissa, played with icy menace by Cate Blanchett.
Heller has raised Hanna for the sole purpose of assassinating Marissa, and sure enough before the first reel is over his plan is put into action as Hanna allows herself to be taken by CIA operatives while Heller escapes to do other things which are never made clear.
Cue the pulse pounding as the remainder of the film becomes one long extended chase scenario with Hanna on the run after a misguided assassination attempt and Marissa hot on her trail with a group of ‘off the books’ killers in tow.
There’s nothing particularly new here with Seth Lochead and David Farr’s screenplay that we haven’t already explored in other assassin films, and that’s a shame because director Joe Wright ("Atonement") creates a few moments of touching intimacy amongst the chaos that might have warranted another film altogether.
Ronan is serviceable in the title role and handles the wetwork scenes efficiently, but she never conveys a sense of lost innocence to the audience past her icy blue gaze. She doesn’t understand herself, and we never really understand her, even when all the cards hit the table in the final reel. I’d be quick to recommend Chole Moretz’s performance in the underrated “Kick Ass,” as well as Natalie Portman’s in “The Professional” easily over this one.
Ronan doesn’t bring anything new to the proceedings, but neither does Cate Blanchett, although I will say it’s nice to see her tackle a proper villain role that serves to erase her horrible villain performance in the last Indiana Jones film. Emulating shades of Tilda Swinton’s turn in “Michael Clayton,” Blanchett inhabits the stockings and skirt wearing CIA killer with ease.
She plays a woman of pure evil who sold her soul long ago for the ‘greater good.’ One who will stop at nothing to clean up the mess she created. Blanchett hits all the right marks, yet is still restrained by the material. A shame, for an actress of her caliber should have been allowed to add more layers to the character.
The aforementioned Chemical Brothers soundtrack (one of the better soundtracks I’ve heard this year) keeps things moving along nicely, and the film does feature one stellar single camera fight scene with Eric Bana, but these few flourishes do little to elevate this quest item beyond its generic nature.
“Hanna” features too little action and too little story, one where you’ll remember the soundtrack more than the film. Besides, child killers were soooooo last year.
“Deeds, not words…”
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