"Young. Sweet. Innocent. Deadly." These all describe Hanna. This action adventure thriller film directed by Joe Wright, and written by Seth Lochhead and David Farr. Hanna is a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the skills of a soldier; these come from being raised by her father, an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own. As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.
Whilst a student at Vancouver Film School, Lochhead wrote a spec script on the idea of a child assassin. In 2006, Lochhead completed the script and shopped it around. The script would go on to be listed in the 2009 Black List, an annual list of the best unproduced screenplays of the year. Saoirse Ronan was attached to star after reading the script. Danny Boyle and Alfonso Cuarón were previously attached to direct the film, before it was confirmed that Wright would direct, after Ronan prompted the producers to consider him. Farr was hired to provide rewrites, before Lochhead was brought back to provides revisions for Wright. By mid March 2010, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng, Tom Hollander, and Michelle Dockery rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in mid June. Filming took place at Studio Babelsberg in Berlin, Germany, as well as Hamburg; Kuusamo, Finland; and Ouarzazate and Essaouira, Morocco. Such was the physicality of Ronan's role, her combat tactics called for 4-hour days of intense training under Dan Inosanto (a Bruce Lee protégé) over a two month period at his L.A. gym. Ronan performed many of her own stunts. Wright bleached Ronan's eyebrows to try and mimic the physicality similar to a white wolf.
The film stars Ronan, Bana, Blanchett, Williams, Flemyng, Hollander, and Dockery. Ronan is the best thing about the film; the actress shoulders nearly every scene, and manages to make the taciturn and seemingly affectless Hanna expressive and achingly relatable. The first act confirms only that Ronan is good at punching trees and running through snow while looking vaguely out of breath and being sad.
A gritty reimagining of the assassin archetype, Hanna adds new wrinkles to the genre and texture to the titular assassin — though the film's long-winded journey may try the patience of audiences who want their violent fables concise. In other scenes, that ingenuity gets lost in a mood board of decorative visuals that bloat its running time and hobble its pace. Nonetheless, it's the rare intelligent action thriller that subverts storytelling tropes and surfs on its own ingenuity.
A gritty reimagining of the assassin archetype, Hanna adds new wrinkles to the genre and texture to the titular assassin — though the film's long-winded journey may try the patience of audiences who want their violent fables concise. In other scenes, that ingenuity gets lost in a mood board of decorative visuals that bloat its running time and hobble its pace. Nonetheless, it's the rare intelligent action thriller that subverts storytelling tropes and surfs on its own ingenuity.
Simon says Hanna receives:
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