It is, indeed, that, but it is much more. Joe Wright is not an action movie director. His previous films include Pride & Prejudice, Atonement and The Soloist. So he brings some "art house" chops to the mix. Yet on paper, Hanna follows many conventions of action movies; chases, fight scenes, gun play, knife play .. and it dabbles in conventions we've seen before: A child raised in isolation to be a killing machine/survivalist by a covert government organization. As such, it reminds me of last year's Salt, starring Angelina Jolie
Salt was indeed a kick ass action movie but although we are informed of the main character's upbringing and shown flashbacks, most of the movie involves the adult Salt. Hanna focuses on the sixteen year old girl and that difference is significant, or more importantly, it is significant in the way that is handled by director Wright
Sometimes a movie is judged by its originality. Sometimes it is judged by the way it handles pre established concepts. I've seen the story of the child raised in isolation and then unleashed on the world .. but Wright is not afraid to give that idea strength here but concentrating as much on Hanna's journey of self discovery as he does on her quest for justice.
Sometimes Wright gets a bit lost in his own art house sensibilities but what pulls him out of his hand held camera mire is the remarkable performance by Ronan. As an actor, she can do as much with a drawn mouth and a languid stare as with a contrived monologue. She is the centre of the movie and she holds it extremely well; you believe her when she smiles with a delight at her discovery of music and you believe her when she is kicking ass
It is not surprising that Wright can handle these scenes of Hanna's self discovery but the man also brings a lot to the action movie plate as well. If the plot devices of Hanna are a bit cliche, so are some of the action scenes but this is where Wright's hand held, documentary style asthetic serves him well. I have seen many fight/chase scenes among shipping containers before (The Transporter comes to mind) but Wright makes his exciting and suspenseful and fresh. Rapid MTV style editing has become a staple of action movies but Wright uses one masterful long hand held shot to turn a fight in an underground location, between Eric Bana and multiple assailants, into something fairly breath taking
Bana is pretty much dead centre perfect in this movie. He's displayed his acting chops before but with this film he proves that he is more than capable of carrying an action movie on his own, especially since he obviously does many of his own fighting stunts. More importantly he is able to establish his relationship with Ronan with a minimum of dialouge and with almost no obvious emoting.
Hanna is not at all dialogue heavy. Much of the movie depends upon camerwork, editing, the strength of silent acting and an absolutely powerful score by the Chemical Brothers. Some of the scenes have an almost idyllic tone, occasionally this verges on directorial self indulgence but just when I was sure Hanna was about to sing We Are The World, some bad guy would come along and she would have to help him have a very very bad day
Another area where Hanna threatens to tumble into the dark hole of movie cliche is Cate Blancet's character. It gives nothing away to say that is the bad guy. And boy, is she. I was never really a big fan of this actor until the recent Robin Hood where she became one of my favorite Maid Marion's. She is good here but her character is not quite as well fleshed out as everyone else and although she occasionally conveys a chilling methodical coldness, she can come close to munching on the scenery
Hanna may be an action movie for those not normally a fan of action movies. Or more correctly, it may be an action movies for those, like myself, who are weary of over the top CGI enpowered, absolutely unbelievable and illogical action set pieces where cars fly through the air like Chinese acrobats, missiles slice easily through entire apartment buildings and heroes can leap off 4,000 foot waterfalls while making a thermonuclear device out of a tin of tuna fish and a bendy straw. That is not the case here, the stunts are performed by real people, think Ronin or the Bourne movies. There is a bit of a seventies feel to this movie, from the hand held camera work to the European locations to the lighting direction. Hanna can get your pulse racing. But every now and then it can also engage your emotions.
At the heart of Hanna is a contemplation of the concept of a family. Wright is not afraid to delve into this idea and this is one of the thing, along with Ronan's remarkable performance, that gives the ass kickery as much emotional as it does physical impact
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