Not a review: Hanna
May. 15th, 2011 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbHanna is a brilliant film.
It's a cross between a really fast, viciously intense, spy thriller, and the quasi-magical-realism/serendipity/fabulous incongruity of Hanna as she encounters civilisation for the very first time.
The cinematography is beautiful, if on occasion a trifle insert-warning-for-epilepsy here. The soundtrack is striking, and to my mind perfect. The narrative arc - the girl and her father in the cabin in the tundra, the choice to beard the evil witch/CIA handler Marissa Wiegler, the journey-as-coming-of-age, the moments of the fabulous juxtaposed against brutality - reflects in a very clever, measured way the picture-book of Grimms' fairy tales which is one of the only things (the other being a strip of passport photos) Hanna has of her mother. In an understated way, this is a very stylised film. It is also inclined to let you discover things from context, and it does not always choose to tie things up very neatly.
Saoirse Ronan brings an almost unworldly presence to the fey-wilderness-child-warrior character of Hanna. Set against this is Cate Blanchett's Marissa Wiegler, whose evil is signified by her immaculate apartment, perfectly coiffed hair, and knife-like stiletto heels.
Thank you, Hollywood, for finally giving me a thriller in which two of the three major characters (the other is Eric Bana, who turns in a decent performance as Hanna's father, but there's no hiding the fact there's much less meat on his character than on the other two), as well as some interesting minor ones, are female. Jessica Barden deserves a mention here for her portrayal of obnoxious but affecting British teenager Sophie, a role that did a lot to bring home Hanna's disconnect from the world at large.
Hanna is brilliant, fey, and brutal. I can't recommend it enough.
It's a cross between a really fast, viciously intense, spy thriller, and the quasi-magical-realism/serendipity/fabulous incongruity of Hanna as she encounters civilisation for the very first time.
The cinematography is beautiful, if on occasion a trifle insert-warning-for-epilepsy here. The soundtrack is striking, and to my mind perfect. The narrative arc - the girl and her father in the cabin in the tundra, the choice to beard the evil witch/CIA handler Marissa Wiegler, the journey-as-coming-of-age, the moments of the fabulous juxtaposed against brutality - reflects in a very clever, measured way the picture-book of Grimms' fairy tales which is one of the only things (the other being a strip of passport photos) Hanna has of her mother. In an understated way, this is a very stylised film. It is also inclined to let you discover things from context, and it does not always choose to tie things up very neatly.
Saoirse Ronan brings an almost unworldly presence to the fey-wilderness-child-warrior character of Hanna. Set against this is Cate Blanchett's Marissa Wiegler, whose evil is signified by her immaculate apartment, perfectly coiffed hair, and knife-like stiletto heels.
Thank you, Hollywood, for finally giving me a thriller in which two of the three major characters (the other is Eric Bana, who turns in a decent performance as Hanna's father, but there's no hiding the fact there's much less meat on his character than on the other two), as well as some interesting minor ones, are female. Jessica Barden deserves a mention here for her portrayal of obnoxious but affecting British teenager Sophie, a role that did a lot to bring home Hanna's disconnect from the world at large.
Hanna is brilliant, fey, and brutal. I can't recommend it enough.
