In Defence of Hanna

Once upon a time, there was a little film called Hanna, a rare arthouse action film. It’s a film that has a cult audience but deserves more love and attention.

Hanna Heller (Saoirse Ronan) is a 16-year-old girl who lives in the northern forests of Finland. Her father, Erik (Eric Bana), has been training her to be the ultimate assassin so she can kill Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), Erik’s former CIA handler. When Hanna turns on a radio beacon, the CIA apprehends the skilled teen and forces her into the big, wide world.

Hanna was a film that had a lot going for it. The screenplay was on the 2006 and 2009 Black List, and Danny Boyle and Alfonso Cuarón were linked to the film before Joe Wright got the directing gig. The reception for Hanna was mixed-to-modestly positive, but it was a substantive film that was highly entertaining.

Hanna was a modern fairy tale where a girl goes on a quest to defeat an evil witch. It just happens that the film was framed as an action spy thriller. Hanna had fairy tale motifs throughout its runtime. Hanna’s only form of entertainment was a Grimm’s Fairy Tales children’s book; she referred to Marissa as ‘The Witch,’ and the climax took place in an abandoned Grimm’s Fairy Tales theme park. Hanna was a girl who grew up in a rustic cabin with her father.

Hanna’s story drew from Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel, and to a lesser extent Rapunzel and Snow White. All these stories were about settled characters who were forced out into the big bad world and faced some sort of evil. Hanna came out during a mini glut of fairy tale movies. Disney returned to fairy tale animated films with Tangled and Frozen; 2012 saw two Snow White movies being released, and there were stylised films based on Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel released during this period.

Hanna grew up away from civilisation; her lifestyle was rustic, and she only learnt about the world through books. She was overwhelmed when she met other people and was confronted with technology. This led to the other major story aspect of Hanna: it was an unusual coming-of-age story. Erik drilled Hanna to recite her cover story, and she remembered it verbatim, but her delivery was cold and robotic. It was information she needed to tell, not have any emotion behind it. Hanna was focused on her goal, and when she completed it, she was allowed to become her own person. Hanna’s journey had a dreamlike quality as she experienced her personal liberation and fought the forces that tried to catch her.

Hanna spent a lot of time with an English family that was travelling across Morocco and Spain. They gave her a chance to experience some normalcy, even if Hanna performed actions that should have raised eyebrows. Hanna was meant to be an ultimate assassin: genetically altered to be ruthless, with her father training her from a young age, but she actually had empathy and grew to care for the family. She was especially close with Rachel (Olivia Williams) and Sophie (Jessica Barden). Rachel acted as a surrogate mother, and Sophie was Hanna’s first friend. There have been some criticisms that the family were annoying, but they were people living an alternative lifestyle, and in Sophie’s case, she was meant to be annoying. Sophie softened because of her friendship with Hanna. Jessica Barden impressed in the role, and she was able to go toe-to-toe with Saoirse Ronan, one of the best actresses of their generation.

The other pillar holding up Hanna was the action. The film got some impressive people involved. Jeff Imada was the stunt co-ordinator and had an impressive CV; he worked on films like The Crow, the 1995 version of Mortal Kombat, and the Bourne series. Ronan underwent an intensive training regime to perform in the film, and she was convincing when taking on special forces soldiers and knife-wielding skinheads, even though she was a skinny teen. The action highlights were Hanna’s escape from the CIA facility, the fight in the container park and my favourite, a three-minute-long continuous shot that ended with Erik fighting a group of CIA agents in the Berlin underground. The film was enhanced by The Chemical Brothers’ score, which was high-tempo and fist-pumping. I listen to it as gym music.

Hanna was a fantastic film that deserves to be seen, especially by fans of cult action movies. It was equally entertaining and thoughtful. It deserves to be a boutique distributor like Arrow, Eureka or 101 Films.