Hanna

What a fun movie to watch. I had some expectation of what Hanna was going to be, but what I got was a bit different. Good different. The cinematography was second to none, and the Chemical Brothers soundtrack synced up with the sequences perfectly. Hanna is raised in isolation on a snowy continent by her Father Erik (Eric Bana). When know from the trailers that he has raised her to be a perfect soldier, or hunter, or maybe just a survivalist. What we are a little unclear about is why. He trains her, teaches her any language she may ever need, and makes her unafraid of the world she does not know. She is 16 and has not experienced anything. Then her time has come. She is ready. Ready for what? That is what the film really is about. The revenge Erik wants on his former employer Marissa (Blanchett), who is a government handler for spies and secret agents. When Hanna is taken into custody by her own free will, the movie is off like a rocket. She is smart and trained and has her orders. Failure is an unknown word to her, and Saoirse Ronan is absolutely one of the elite young actresses in Hollywood today. Hanna takes us on a thrill ride of unanswered questions, laced with really good, if not some of the best, fight scenes ever. As much as I thought this would be an Eric Bana vehicle, it was actually more to showcase the brilliance of Miss Ronan. The way she never hesitates to the way she handles herself and her firearms really showed me that she very well could be what the film was making her out to be. If you can't tell, I really enjoyed this film, and though I love Cate Blanchett, the southern accent was not the worst I've heard, but not the best either. Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead, who is also British, does a much more believable southern accent. She tried to hard, and that is why she failed. True southern is about talking slower and drawing out the syllables, not emphasizing every syllable like she did. Her flaw did not over shadow the brilliance that is Hanna. It was not so "Nicolas Cage" over the top, that it was distracting, and it does not change my opinion of the overall story. Truth be told, Hanna is one bad mother. The last aspect I am going to discuss is the overall direction. In a word, PERFECT. The way we see Hanna light up seeing the world for the first time, and being terrified of running water or fascinated with electricity was done so good it had to be done. Director Joe Wright only needed a couple of very short scenes to set the stage of the lead character's entire mentality and he did it so well. You will enjoy what Hanna is, I'm sure of it.

NBM rates Hanna - Phenomenal