Hanna - Online Review

'PG-13, 12A, cut-away-from-any-blood, follow-a-standard-plot, Hanna is a lesson in just how much you can try to get away with if you hide everything behind some loud music'

Hanna sees Joe Wright go from safe period drama to safe social drama to... safe action drama. Whilst it might boast a pumping Chemical Brothers soundtrack, Hanna is as bland as they come. PG-13, 12A, cut-away-from-any-blood, follow-a-standard-plot, Hanna is a lesson in just how much you can try to get away with if you hide everything behind some music which sounds like it was composed on an acid trip, in a room lit only by purple neon, probably somewhere in the Balearics.

The give away is Hanna's (Saoirse Ronan) escape from her initial captivity. It's the only moment the soundtrack fits. Edited by Wright to look somewhat like a music video, Ronan dives down cold concrete passageways as epileptic lights flash on and off in time to the Chemical beat. It works really well but its the single part of the film that does. The rest is what would happen if you set James Bond to a trance mix. It's a lazy attempt to jazz things up and the imagery on show doesn't mesh with it at any point.

If you can ignore it (and you can't) then what emerges behind the audio violence is a stock thriller with fairly little to offer. Hanna is running from Marissa (Cate Blanchett) and so is her Dad (Eric Bana) but there's something in both of their pasts that seems crucial. Just why is Marissa out to get them? Why is Hanna so good at killing everyone? What exactly is Erik (Bana) doing? The answers, when they come, are as underwhelming as they are over-used and recycled and the thin motivations of the characters (why exactly do they leave their anonymous retreat in the first place?) are never rectified by Wright.

A standard thriller that, beyond being difficult to care about, predictable and recycled, tries its best to give you a headache. Interestingly, Wright's next, Anna Karenina, will see him return to period drama, presumably without the Chemical Brothers in tow.

Hanna was showing on Sky Movies Premiere and Sky Anytime for users with appropriate subscriptions.

Look further...

Clothes On Film has an interview with Hanna costume designer, Lucie Bates.