Sunday, April 10, 2011

Call Them As I See Them: Hanna (2011)



A few weeks ago I chronicled Joe Wright’s new movie in my Trailers of the Week. The film was released this weekend and I had a chance to go see it, and I have to say, I was impressed. I have seen most of Wright’s other movies, and based on that I can say that these is probably the least of his movies, but then again his least is better than most others finest efforts.

One thing for sure, Wright is a technical genius behind the camera, he is really able to capture the beauty in each scene and provides a visual flair to the film that few others would, it’s a trait that carries throughout his films.  Given the fact that this is a film that carries a great variety of locations and environments, each looks more fantastical than the last.

When I originally, talked about Hanna I stated that the trailer gave off a feel of one of the Bourne movies mixed with fairy tale elements. That’s exactly what this movie is. The story follows a young girl (Saorise Ronan) who sets out to kill a special agent operative (Cate Blanchett) who has a past with her father (Eric Bana). We see Hanna as she travels from her wilderness home in the forest and coming into contact with the modern world for the first time. It all has an Alice in Wonderland feel to it, there is even a ‘falling down the rabbit hole’ scene as Hanna escapes from a government facility.

While I do appreciate the fairy tale elements that the film carries with it, where it fails in my opinion is how it handles the elements. Its just too much sometimes, like the film is shoving down our throats that this movie is supposed to be a modern fairy tale. It could have been toned down a little bit, instead its just distracting sometimes, and you wind up playing spot the reference instead of what is actually going on in a scene.

Everything else in Hanna is done fairly well, the acting is a little inconsistent, Cate Blanchett’s accent keeps changing it, while everyone else good performances. When there are action scenes are handled very well by Wright given that this was his first attempt at a film that handles such (a standout being a long tracking shot where Eric Bana is followed then fights of a group of agents attempting to capture him.

Hanna is the type of film worth seeing. There is nothing about that is extraordinary with exception to the visual feel throughout. It is a good solid movie from a director taking his first crack at a genre he hadn’t dabbled in before, and ultimately the results are satisfying. It just isn’t on the level of other films that would command repeat viewings.

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