Thor isn't out until next week and Brides Maids until the week after. I wasn't excited for much, so we took a shot on Hanna. I'm glad we did. Now, I'm not sure if Hanna being one-letter short of the spelling that is a palindrome was purposeful (I found it oddly symbolic), but every other image in the movie was quite deliberate. Hanna is an expertly crafted film and deserves better than the 71% it currently has on Rotten Tomatoes.
I'm going to try to be spoiler-free here, and so past the premise I'm not going to tell you anything about the story. Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is a teenage girl raised in seclusion in the woods. Her father is training her to be some kind of elite killer and to have constant vigilance. The film starts with Hanna killing an adult deer in the frozen wilderness and that symbol isn't entirely clear until it is completed at the end of the piece.
Every bit of sound design is expertly chosen. Sounds like the crunching of snow draw your attention to later, more meaningful choices like the rhythm of a ceiling fan or the jarring, raw chip tunes played in combat scenes.
At the top of the film Hanna finishes her preparation and leaves the world she was raised in. Leaving the forest becomes her own Into the Woods experience and from here on out, the movie is pitch perfect. We don't know why the delightful villian, Marisa (Kate Blanchet), is trying to take her and kill her father (Eric Bana). We don't know what Hanna has been prepared for. Those mysteries are answered, but more important is the coming of age story that takes place.
The urban environments outside of nature are alien. The music and the bizarre environments immerse the audience in Hanna's perspective. Everything is new. Everything is strange. The art direction never takes the easy way out-- making the audience feel uncomfortable with sexuality-- and keeps Hanna innocent. Even the comedic moments are derived from awkward moments in socialization. Some of the best of these moments come from the strangely candid comments from her new teenage friend (because most teenagers just don't have a filter).
The fight choreography is well designed and well executed. Even the violence is disconnected. The film maintains a PG13 rating by keeping the real horrifying acts off camera, but this also serves a more artistic purpose than pleasing the ratings board. The disconnect translates to Hanna, showing how she is disconnected she is from the atrocities she has been trained to commit.
Then we have layer upon layer of symbolism. The deer is just one example. Throughout the film there is a Grimm's Fairytale element that continues the theme of Into the Woods.
Hanna is a well-planned, beautifully filmed and acted coming of age story nested inside a spy thriller. It's a must see for Spring 2011.
Final Grade: A
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