Customer Reviews

Hanna [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(48)

 

 

What a terrific movie. A really likeable central character, whose coming-of-age journey is paralleled by a manhunt across Europe (where she is being hunted), during which she starts to learn more about the world and comes to reject violence. But that's not to say that the action scenes aren't thrilling stuff, and really enhanced by the wonderful score from the Chemical Brothers, which fits every scene in the movie where it's used (a lot of the time there's no background music, but when there is, it really adds to it) like a glove. Superb cinematography and beautiful directorial touches add what it takes to make the movie more than a clever thriller and elevate it to the status of art.

Be warned that not all of the plot is spelled out for you like in a typical Hollywood flick, so if you're not used to paying attention to subtlety, you might feel lost in the plot. If that happens, forget the plot and you'll still enjoy the movie for all of the above reasons.

No movie, however brilliant, will be treasured unless we feel we can make an emotional connection to the characters. Fortunately, Hanna won't disappoint there. We identify with Hanna and root for her, sympathise with Eric; we feel at home with the English tourist family, we hate Marissa with childlike passion, and Isaacs is all of our dark repulsions and fears covered by the thinnest social veneer. Even the old clown reminds us of some old uncle, even for those of us who never had uncles...

Wish I could give it 7 stars out of 5, but I'll just have to settle for actually watching it again.

From the amazing acting of the vilianess Cate Blanchett to the 'Wristcutter's reminiscent whistling tune of Tom Hollander to the wonderful direction of Joe Wright- this film is a masterpiece. Then final moments- how the movie is brought full circle will leave you astounded, inspired, and feeling as if there is so much this world has to offer. This is the best movie I've seen all year. I would recommend it to anyone who would consider them self a stylistic, well rounded person. If you tend to like stylish indie flicks such as 'The Life Aquatic', 'Wristcutters', and 'Scott Pilgrim', you'll greatly enjoy and appreciate this film. If you're hesitant to buy this film because, like me, you aren't a fan of younger characters, buy it anyways. Saoirse Ronan has earned an Academy Award, as well as a Golden Globe to prove that she has what it takes to hold her own against the amazing talents of actors Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett. The latter should have won some sort of award for this. She's an excellent villain.

It's rare to see beautiful filmography in an action movie. And though it may be disingenuous to call this an action movie, it absolutely has the underpinnings of one and also has amazing visual artistic qualities.

The story itself is going to polarize audiences. There will be two types of viewers: The type that sees an odd action movie and the type that sees a philosophical statement on life. Either audience is going to see the action and novelty aspects, but, as a member of the second group, the movie touches on some very relatable, tender points regarding the early stages of life and coming of age.

The entire movie is wrapped around the vague notion of Grimm's fairy tales and though it doesn't attempt to draw any direct metaphors, they certainly allude to them along the way.

This is the first movie in almost 10 years that I've intentionally watched multiple times in the theatre. It's an experience and it's as enjoyable the second time as the first.

Highly recommended.

What do you get when the director of Atonement, Pride and Prejudice (2007), and The Soloist directs an action movie? How about if La Femme Nikita and The Fifth Element's Leeloo produced a love-child? Same answer for both: Hanna. And now for something completely different...

Both brutal and emotionally delicate, this fairy tale-driven movie follows a young, female, elven-looking Jason Bourne in her journey to defeat the wicked witch. Hanna tries to appeal to both art house critics and action movie connoisseurs, but succeeds considerably more in the ethereal former than the latter.

Hanna begins very slowly, but with no shortage of intrigue, as we are introduced to Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) and her father (Eric Bana) living in some subarctic wilderness. They make ends meet by living off the grid with zero human interaction and hunting for self-sufficiency. Like any father concerned for his early-teenage daughter, he randomly assaults her to test her developing martial prowess--for which she has a frightening facility. Near bedtime Hanna is drilled to answer questions in Spanish, Italian, German...no problem. We later learn that she also speaks Japanese and Arabic. Just as we begin to question how this young girl could be so talented as a spy-in-training we meet her deficiency. She has had no human or world interaction. All of her knowledge outside of her ployglot tongue and combat grooming have been limited to a single-volume abridged encyclopedia.

Yearning to be introduced to the world, we discover that Hanna's training has been geared to assassinate a CIA agent (Cate Blanchett) formerly assigned to her case; assigned to terminate her, having already dispatched her mother. This plot element goes largely unexplained. So if you craft questions about it while watching the movie, they will go unanswered.

The movie has notably two different tones. One is reserved for the scenes in which we see Hanna interacting with the sights, sounds, and denizens of a world she only understood through her father's explanations as if they were fairytales. The majority of her character development is cued by a budding relationship with a posh British tween on her family vacation in Africa. She experiences friendship, acceptance, and a near-first kiss which results in a Spanish teen almost having his neck snapped (a very Leeloo-Fifth Element moment). Her awkward social encounters are humorous. When asked how her mother died by the British girl's mother, Hanna casually and informatively replies: "three bullets." While, at moments, this social experiment comes off as shocking, it also has its enchanting moments. As she experiences new, simple things such as hearing music or having the wind blow in her face riding aback a motorcycle, her haunting expressions remind me of the emotional journey taken by the young, deaf Japanese girl from Babel.

The other tone was strongly forecast by the trailer: Hanna is a stone-cold killer. Eric Bana brought his A-game Munich bad-assery to this movie and shared a heaping spoonful of kickass awesome with his co-star. There are several battles between Hanna and her father, as well as between each of them and various covert-types sent to kill them. In terms of camera work and film-editing, no effort is made for the viewer to enjoy the Bourne Identity¬¬-style fighting choreography. You "know" what kinds of moves are being executed, but you cannot really "see" it happen. Instead, every effort is made for the viewer to experience the abrupt, brutal, purposeful nature of these trained killers. Their techniques come off as effortless; instinctive. Also similar to the Bourne series is how much sprinting occurs in this movie, making for a very fight-or-flight-y experience.

Presented with many elements of fantasy--a young girl (sort of) imprisoned, naively interacting with the outside world, a "near first" kiss, revenge, a wicked witch, a fairy tale house, and various foreign locales--our more elf-than-human looking heroine strives to defeat her nemesis to have her revenge and gain her freedom. Her journey ends with an ending that doesn't feel like an ending. Rather it feels like they "forgot" to film the last few scenes and abruptly "ended" the movie on the spot. Considering the strong, climactic, symbolic endings of fairy tales, this felt like a huge disappointment after watching an otherwise stimulating film.

Despite some large plot holes and an ending that should earn the director a well-deserved kick in the nuts, I'd still like to offer a hard sell on seeing this movie. It borrows from many, but is unlike any other. I found this movie very interesting, touching and surreal.

This is an intense, intriguing and enigmatic film; the viewer should be prepared to think, wonder and pay attention, as it is not light hearted. The character interplay is interesting, intense and somehwat ethereal. The plot is akin to that of Bourne Identity or any other CIA based plot, as this plot is also CIA based, however, this film does not move as quickly as say Bourne Identity, and the acting is less action oriented, and more melodramatic. Never the less, this film is definately worth seeing and feeling, as it brings up all manner of emotional sensations.

Any thriller or suspense about a 16-year-old girl assassin requires a considerable amount of suspension of disbelief. The task becomes even harder when the storyline is saddled with countless plot holes, incredible coincidences and impossible motives. Don't get me wrong. I know disregard to realistic possibility is not actually a bad thing, and I enjoyed such actions as "The Long Kiss Good Night." But in the case of "Hanna," things just went too far.

The film centers on a girl Hanna Heller (Saoirse Ronan), raised and home-schooled by her father Erik Heller (Eric Bana) in the wilderness of Finland. Under Erik's tutelage Hanna has been training more than ten years to be a perfect killing machine. Hanna is growing up fast, getting more and more interested in the world outside, and one day Erik asks her to make a decision. She does it, and deadly battles with CIA operatives begin, while she meets people including a traveling family in the desert.

You can argue that "Hanna" is not really an action thriller, but a character-driven drama about the titular heroine like "La Femme Nikita." Some might find fairy-tale elements in some of the episodes and characters, and Cate Blanchett's wicked-witch like agent is one of them. To me, "Hanna" seems more like a pretentious effort from filmmakers who fail to realize the film's derivative premise, which is hardly covered by the showy camerawork (including the director Joe Wright's trademark long take), and the superficial treatment of dramatic and allegorical aspects.

I like Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchett. I tried to like the film, but found it very hard to do so, when Hanna, easily frightened by television and electricity, drops in a shop, uses a computer and access the internet; when chasing agents commit stupid mistakes again and again; when, most importantly, secrets and twists (very slowly revealed) are nothing really original. The only thing I like about the film is the thumping score by The Chemical Brothers.

This movie is one of the best I have seen in a long time. I am familiar with European cinema, so the style was not a surprise to me. I loved the characters, the music, the settings and the story. While the people around me looked puzzled I was drinking in the Grimm references, and recognizing places I have traveled. One reviewer said the Grimm FairyTales were evident but not used directly and I must disagree. The entire movie is a modern day fable, true to the Brothers Grimm. A wicked witch who wants to kill the beautiful princess who has been raised away from civilization. Sleeping Beauty, anyone? Or Rapunzel if you like. The casting is exquisite and I adored seeing Cate Blanchett as a villain, her Texas accent was priceless! I believed Eric Bana as Papa and cried for him. Ms. Ronan is spectacular. Did they write the part for her, or was she born to play it? Who knows?

The film is a visual, aural and mental treat. I never had the chance to see it in the theatre, but when we rented the disk, immediately watched it twice and truly loved it the second time more than the first. The music like the main characters is ethereal and lightning fast, applied with a restrained hand. I can listen to the album anytime and be thrilled.
I do understand some of the negative comments, but they sadden me. If you have only watched TV and Hollywood "Blockbusters" you are accustomed to a MacDonald's level movie experience. There is nothing wrong with MacDonald's from time to time, but not every day. "Hanna" is a fiercely fine sharp cup of black coffee with a fresh pastry taken in the open air. It is a treat the we each deserve at least once in our lives.
Please give this movie and chance and enjoy!

I don't see how this film has received so many bad reviews from viewers.
While it wasn't quite able to make the leap to "outstanding", Hanna certainly is very good, far superior to all those movies that are just a bunch of noisy gimmicks thrown together without much plot or thought.
There may be a few plot holes, sure enough, but they can be overlooked. The story is still above-average and well thought out.
Additionally, I didn't find it boring. The good writing, interesting characters and compelling situations kept my interest throughout the entire length of the film.
If you're looking for an intelligent action film I recommend Hanna.

I think the unusual european style and limited marketing hurt this film at the box office. It was easily the best, smartest action film of 2011. I don't buy many movies but this was a must-have. Excellent cast, acted, and some amazing cinematography from a director more known for costume dramas. Saoirse Ronan is amazing at making this unusual character come to life, and the action she is involved with is more believable than similar 'small girl beats up guys' movies like the Thai boxing film 'Chocolate'. The subway fistfight scene with Eric Bana is an amazing single edit tracking shot, I could watch it repeatedly.

It's not necessary to suspend disbelief to imagine a government, just about any government, doing nasty things to gain a military advantage over its enemies, and maybe even its friends. Add some high-biotech, beyond state-of-the-art manipulation of basic reproductive material in a weapons-grade experiment that gets out of hand, and we're still not enirely out of the domain of plausibility. Write a slam-bang story based on an admittedly far-fetched rendering of the foregoing premise. Recruit a cast of really fine actors, including those who fill the roles of kids who are, in various winsome ways, precocious but never obnoxious, and you've got a really fun movie. In this case you've got Hanna.

As played by Saoirse Ronan, Hanna is an engaging character who combines almost unlimited resourcefulness, a purposefully focused cloak-and-dagger sort of sophistication, and a very believable naivete' in a world that is exciting, dangerous, and wherein she finds genuine friendship and affection. While on the run from the off-handedly evil Marissa (Cate Blanchett) and her henchmen, Hanna joins up with a family headed by a couple of well-meaning and likeable latter day hippies. Their daughter Sophie is about the same early-adolescent age as Hanna, and Sophie's little brother is immediately taken with our pretty and daring protagonist. The family is determinedly accepting of differences of all kinds, and the parents encourage their children to be independent. Even they, however, can't help but notice that Hanna is, well, special.

The hippie family provides aid and comfort for Hanna when she needs it most, and the cleverly written story, along with remarkably capable actors, avoids annoying stereotypes that often emerge when dealing with '60's throwbacks. Sophie, Hanna's first real friend, is naturally articulate, self-assured beyond her years, and genuinely funny. Even Sophie, however, is stunned and frightened when she sees for herself what Hanna does to survive the onslaught of the nefarious bureaucrat, Marissa, and her hired assassins, be they jack-booted thugs or more than a little effeminate impresarios.

Cate Blanchett is perhaps a bit too bland, maybe even wooden, as an amoral government official. Throughout the movie her voice and accent change in ways and for reasons that are not explained. Erik Bana does a fine job as Hanna's father, as tough as he has to be, but also genuinely loving. His role, too, could have easily collapsed into a tough-but-tender stereotype, but Bana is a better actor than that, and he's working with a really nice screenplay.

The movie does not take itself too seriously, and neither should we. Hanna is a fun movie, loaded with excitement, none of which seems gratuitous. Nothing deep or profound here, just a good story, even if it is a bit outlandish, with a lot of action and a really fine cast. Just relax and enjoy it. You may or may not think the ending is happy, but it does seem fitting.