Hanna

Here's an odd little thing. Part espionage thriller, part fairy tale.

Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is a young girl who lives in a remote forest alpine
forest, with her father (Eric Bana). They live off the land, in a log cabin,
where her father is evidently training her to be some kind of killing machine
assassin. One day, as a young girl growing up will, she tells her father that
she's ready, and wants to see the world. In response, he produces some kind of
transponder signal box, and tells her that she only needs to flick the switch,
and the people looking for them will come and find them, and that there will be
no going back. After some consideration, she flicks the switch. And all hell,
of course, breaks loose.

After the dust settles, and some significant escapade, she finds herself in
Morocco, where, after some stumbling about, she hooks up with a British family
who take her for a girl backpacking on her own, and tags along with them as
part of her instructions to rendezvous with her father in Berlin. And thus, in
the words of a great man, she Goes On Holiday By Mistake, and has a voyage of
self discovery through the off-the-beaten-track-but-still-quite-touristy bits
of Europe. Meanwhile, sinister forces are tracking her down, in the shape of
CIA Person/Wicked Witch (Cate Blanchette) and her creepy off-the-books henchman
in terrible sports casual wear (Tom Hollander). Things gradually come to a head
as she and her father approach the rendezvous point (a deserted Brothers Grimm
themed theme park) where all, and more, is revealled.

It's quite an interesting idea, in that the idea of a character who is nothing
but a perfect killer, who gradually learns some humanity is now part of the
mythology of modern cinema, and this film goes the step further and casts such
a character into a modern day fairy tale. And like a proper, pre-Disney fairy
tale, a lot of blood is going to flow before the end.

While it's interestingly done, it's not perfect; There's a lot of odd camera
shots which dangerously skirt the line between arty and self-indulgent. The
performances are a bit sparse and archetypical rather than fleshed out
characters - Hanna and her father are very much ciphers who give nothing away,
Cate Blanchette hams it up a bit as a wicked stepmother/witch type, and Tom
Hollander is in possession of a very camp and pervy German accent.

What is good about it, though, and the reason it should be seen and considered
rather than prejudged and avoided, is that something interesting is being
attempted here, and while it's not an unqualified success, it's a step into
less well-travelled cinematic territory, and there's much here to enjoy.