Hanna (2011)

A 16-year-old who was raised by her father to be the perfect assassin is dispatched on a mission across Europe, tracked by a ruthless intelligence agent and her operatives.

Director:

Joe Wright

Writers:

Seth Lochhead (screenplay), David Farr (screenplay),

Stars:

Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Vicky Krieps

4 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Saoirse Ronan	...	Hanna
Eric Bana	...	Erik Heller
Vicky Krieps	...	Johanna Zadek
Cate Blanchett	...	Marissa Wiegler
Paris Arrowsmith	...	CIA Tech #1
John Macmillan	...	Lewis
Tim Beckmann	...	Walt
Paul Birchard	...	Bob
Christian Malcolm	...	Head of Ops
Jamie Beamish	...	Burton
Tom Hodgkins	...	Monitor
Vincent Montuel	...	Camp G Doctor #1
Nathan Nolan	...	Camp G Doctor #2
Michelle Dockery	...	False Marissa
Jessica Barden	...	Sophie

Storyline

Hanna (Ronan) is a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a soldier; these come from being raised by her father (Bana), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

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Plot Keywords:

assassin | training | finland | revelation | teenage girl | 

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Taglines:

Innocence can be deadly.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexual material and language

Details

Official Sites:

Focus Features [United States] Official Facebook

Country:

USA UK Germany

Language:

English French German Italian Arabic Spanish

Release Date:

8 April 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hana

Filming Locations:

Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,135,782 (UK) (6 May 2011)

Gross:

$40,247,512 (USA) (1 July 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Focus Features, Holleran Company, Sechzehnte Babelsberg Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The script was listed on both the 2006 and 2009 Black List, an annual list of the best unproduced screenplays of the year.

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Goofs

Hanna and Sophie lie on their sides in the tent, talking face to face. But in their respective close ups, both girls are lying with the left hand sides of their faces on the floor of the tent, and their right ears in the air, which means they can't be face to face. Sophie's close ups appear to have been flipped in editing for some reason.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Hanna: I just missed your heart.

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Crazy Credits

Words are spoken during the credits. At the end of the first song: "Music: A combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and expression of emotion". And after the end credits: "Schlaf weiter" (sleep on).

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Connections

Referenced in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.13 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Atasa Doul Kayalan"
Written by Fatima Tihihit

User Reviews

Starts off as a good film, but ends up as a handful of good ideas, poorly strung together.

Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Hanna (Saoirse Ronan), who was raised in a forest by her father Erik (Eric Bana). As an ex-CIA agent, Erik taught Hanna everything she needed: hunting, armed and unarmed combat, and all the languages in the world. One day, Hanna was sent out of the forest to assassinate Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), the woman who murdered her mother.

Joe Wright's latest feature is modern-day fairy-tale that is part revenge-flick, part coming- of-age drama. Like his last effort, 'The Soloist', 'Hanna' has some very good ideas that are let down by bad decisions and occasionally over-powering direction.

The film certainly has a very strong beginning. The concept of a killer child may be screwed- up, but this is offset by the curiosity it arouses. Why has Erik raised Hanna in this manner? Who is this woman they want to kill, and why did she become their enemy?

The storytelling is tight, intentionally drip-fed, which keeps the focus on the moment and makes the assassination plan more dramatic. Well, for the first 45 minutes. After that, Hanna sees the wider world for the first time and becomes distracted – which is both good and bad.

On one hand, it allows some insight into the effects of Hanna's blinkered upbringing. Having grown up killing her own breakfast and making her own fire, she is not prepared for her journey through the modern world. Seeing her flick light switches on and off in awe is one of several touching moments, which add a human side to what could have become another soulless gun movie.

However, Wright doesn't know when to pull back on the sentimentality. The film hits its low point when Hanna hitches a ride with a stuck-up English hippy family, which is meant to contrast the lonely, limited nature of Hanna's upbringing. Ironically, this family is even more dysfunctional than Hanna and Erik, and only succeeds in making Hanna's journey more irrelevant.

Her meticulous plan somehow becomes self-indulgent faux-art, featuring slow-motion Flamenco dancing. The film goes so off-course that it is questionable whether there was a plan in the first place. Is the story intentionally drip-fed, or is there just not very much to tell? For a child raised specifically to kill, Hanna doesn't end up doing very much.

That's not to say that there isn't any action. There are a handful of set pieces, and they are a delight to behold. From a fight in a subway to a chase through a labyrinthine cargo yard, the action is wonderfully shot and expertly edited. Long, tracking shots allow for a high level of clarity and immersion. Even this, however, is sometimes ruined with over-energetic camera-work, turning the film into a music video.

Saoirse Ronan is a good action star, throwing herself into her fight scenes with zeal, but her real strength is her acting. On one hand she seems so genuinely lethal that it's a little scary. At the same time, she has a delicate, innocent aura that makes it hard not to feel sorry for her. This is a layered performance that transcends the generic labelling of 'good' or 'evil'.

'Hanna' is not flawed, but sabotaged. Ronan is superb, and the action is fantastic, but even this is not enough to put the film back on course after Joe Wright steered it in the wrong direction. It started off as a good film, but ended up as a handful of good ideas, poorly strung together.