Hanna (2011)

"Adapt or Die"

Directed by Joe Wright
Produced by Leslie Holleran, Marty Adelstein, Scott Nemes
Screenplay by Seth Lochhead, David Farr
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng, Cate Blanchett
Music by The Chemical Brothers
Cinematography: Alwin H. Küchler
Edited by Paul Tothill
Production company: Holleran Company, Studio Babelsberg
Distributed by Focus Features
Release date: 8 April 2011 (United States)
Running time: 111 minutes
Country: Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Finland
Budget: $30,000,000
Box office: $63,782,078

"Hanna" is an action adventure thriller film directed by Joe Wright. It tells the story of Hanna Heller, a 15-year-old girl who lives with her father, Erik Heller in rural northern Finland. Since the age of two, he has trained her to be a skilled assassin. Erik teaches her hand-to-hand combat and drills her in target shooting. Hanna reads a bloodstained Grimms' Fairy Tales book frequently, has a great deal of encyclopedic knowledge, and is fluent in several languages. Due to her training away from civilization, she has never come into contact with modern technology or culture. As for Erik, he's an ex-CIA operative from Germany. He left the agency, going incognito into the Arctic. Erik knows a secret that cannot become public, and is being sought after by Marissa Wiegler, a senior CIA officer, who wants to eliminate him. So Erik has trained Hanna with the intent that she will kill Marissa. And one night, Hanna tells Erik that she is "ready".

Cast

• Saoirse Ronan as Hanna Heller
• Eric Bana as Erik Heller
• Cate Blanchett as Marissa Wiegler
• Jessica Barden as Sophie
• Aldo Maland as Miles
• Tom Hollander as Isaacs
• Olivia Williams as Rachel
• Jason Flemyng as Sebastian
• Michelle Dockery as False Marissa
• Vicky Krieps as Johanna Zadek
• Martin Wuttke as Knepfler (Mr. Grimm)
• Sebastian Hulk as Titch

The director of the film is Joe Wright. Among his other works are "Pride & Prejudice", "Atonement", "The Soloist", and "Anna Karenina". He has several awards including "BAFTA", "Golden Globe Award", and "Golden Lion". As for "Hanna", it was the first thriller movie in Joe Wright's career. In my opinion, it turned out successful. Its plot has some unexpected twists and interesting plotlines. The movie received mostly positive reviews.

Saoirse Ronan is really talented in fact. Unfortunately, her role as Hanna Heller didn't give her opportunity to be emotional. But the actress needed to be in good shape because her character is a soldier, a perfect weapon. Erik Heller performed by Eric Bana turned out a clever and sharp man. Of course, because he was ex-CIA operative. But I think that the character resulted incomplete unfinished. Cate Blanchett. Her Marissa Wiegler was eccentric, self-willed, and wise. I have to admit that she's an intriguing character. And I liked her despite Marissa is the antagonist. Tom Hollander as Isaacs is a killer with a smile on his face. There ambiguity goes: on the one hand, he's engaging and charming, but on the other - a ruthless murderer.

Advantages

• Saoirse Ronan as Hanna Heller
• Eric Bana as Erik Heller
• Cate Blanchett as Marissa Wiegler

Disadvantages

• A little boring

"Strangenesses"

• Perfect people?

Clue Moments

• Meeting with Sophie's family
• Finding out the truth

Mankind has always been interested in creation of perfect human, especially in the twentieth century. Hanna looks like an Aryan: she has blue eyes and fair hair. The Aryan race was a racial grouping commonly used in the period of the late 19th century to the mid 20th century to describe peoples of European and Western Asian heritage. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or subrace of the larger Caucasian race. While originally meant simply as a neutral ethno-linguistic classification, from the late 19th century onwards the concept of the Aryan race has been used by proponents of ideologically-motivated racism and white supremacism such as in doctrines of Nazism and neo-Nazism. Aryanism developed as a racial ideology that claimed that the Aryan race was a master race.

Society strives for submission of people who are different from others. They represent a danger as they aren't like most people. So nobody knows what they're able to do and this fact scares. These people are admirable and frightening at the same time.

Parents. That's the name of people who give birth or who bring up? Each of us has their own answer.

Soundtracks

1. The Chemical Brothers - Bahnhof Rumble
2. The Chemical Brothers - Car Chase (Arp Worship)
3. The Chemical Brothers - Chalice
4. The Chemical Brothers - Container Park
5. The Chemical Brothers - Escape
6. The Chemical Brothers - Escape Wavefold
7. The Chemical Brothers - Hanna vs Marissa
8. The Chemical Brothers - Hanna's Theme (Vocal Version)
9. The Chemical Brothers - Hanna's Theme
10. The Chemical Brothers - Interrogation / Lonesome Subway / Grimm's House
11. The Chemical Brothers - Isolated Howl
12. The Chemical Brothers - Map Sounds / Chalice
13. The Chemical Brothers - Marissa Flashback
14. The Chemical Brothers - Quayside Synthesis
15. The Chemical Brothers - Special Ops
16. The Chemical Brothers - Sun Collapse
17. The Chemical Brothers - The Devil Is In The Beats
18. The Chemical Brothers - The Devil Is In The Details
19. The Chemical Brothers - The Forest
20. The Chemical Brothers - The Sandman

Quotations

* * *

Hanna: Did you see it? Did you hear it? It's like thunder! It was so beautiful!

* * *

Erik: Like a mongrel dog from the street of Moscow, it was the first animal to ever return. She was launched into outer space on the third of November, nineteen fifty seven. Scientists believed humans would be unable to survive the conditions of outer space. So flights by animals refute as experiments precursory to human submissions. A rocket was not designed to be retrievable and like it has always been, it returned to die.
Hanna: But she didn't, did she?
Erik: They couldn't bring the rocket back, remember?
Hanna: I remember. But sometimes I wish you would read it differently.

* * *

Sophie: Don't you speak English? It's not your fault if you can't. M.I.A didn't speak English till she was eight, because she was like, a refugee or something from Sri Lanka. Now she's a pop star, in America too. But don't worry if you can't speak English yet.
Miles: Who's she?
Sophie: I found her. She can't speak English. She's from Sri Lanka.
Hanna: I'm from Germany.
Sophie: Oh.

* * *

Isaacs: What do you want, Marissa?
Marissa: Erik Heller is still alive.
Isaacs: Of course.
Marissa: And the girl.
Isaacs: Ah. Why are you here precisely?
Marissa: I need you.
Isaacs: You need me? Little old me! I'm very flattered.
Marissa: I need your talents, darlin'. I need you to do things my agency will not let me do.

* * *

Sophie: Mum is against plastic surgery.
Rachel: I am.
Sophie: Mum doesn't even wear make-up.
Rachel: I don't. I think it's dishonest. This is my face. Take it or leave it! If you study History of Art, Anthropology...
Sebastian: Rachel got a first at Cambridge.
Rachel: ...you learn that red lipstick mimic arousal and suggests the geography of the labia minora.
Sophie: Puke!
Rachel: Where as I have a lot of natural red pigments in my lips, and so I really don't need it.

* * *

Hanna: Can we still be friends?
Sophie: I don't know. I mean I don't really know who you are, do I?
Hanna: That's just it. Neither do I.

* * *

Rachel: I feel so grounded in the countryside. The city stifles me, emotionally, creatively, spiritually. Places like this bring us closer to God.
Hanna: God?
Rachel: Well, not any modernistic sense. Buddha, Krishna, the God within. Whatever you believe in. What do you believe in, Hanna?

* * *

Erik: I love you, Hanna. You have to know that.
Hanna: Because I'm a freak?
Erik: No. Because you are my child.

* * *
You may see the trailer here.

Plot: 5/10

Entertainment: 6/10

Acting: 6/10

Originality: 6/10

Music and Sound: 5/10

6/10