HANNA

UK, 2011, 117 minutes. Colour.
Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng, Jessica Barden.
Directed by Joe Wright.

A very strong cast brings this very grim drama to life. It is a story of espionage from Cold War times, a story of violence and deception, a story of scientific experiments for the good of society and its protection (a variation on the themes of Never Let Me Go), a story of revenge and desperation.

That might not sound a likely scenario for director, Joe Wright, although many of those themes underlay his fine version of Ian McEwan’s? Atonement. His first feature was Pride and Prejudice. His previous film was The Soloist with Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. The director obviously relishes the opportunity to make an action feature with thoughtful drama.

This is clear from the opening in Finland where the young Hanna is out hunting with her father. She is a deadly shot, is being taught survival techniques and complete self-reliance in a remote environment with few comforts (except some books and some fairy tales which she treasures, especially Grimm stories which will be taken up when she ends her quest in Berlin). The audience has little time to wonder who Hanna is and why she and her father are living as primitively as they do. The house is attacked by heavily armed troopers. Thus begins a cat and mouse chase as Hanna is captured, her father escapes and Hanna is submitted to tests in an underground bunker facility and laboratory.

Hanna is played with complete conviction by Saoirse Ronan who came to prominence in Atonement and featured in Death Defying Acts, The Lovely Bones and The Way Back. Only in her mid-teens, she is an actress of extraordinary presence. She has to be because for most of the film she is on the run, putting her survival skills to extraordinary lengths, traversing Morocco, Spain and into Germany to meet her father again. She is pursued by a relentlessly ruthless American spy chief and her well-trained agents, including a seemingly effete but cruel Tom Hollander.

Interesting that the producers of Hanna have called on two Australian leads for their film. The father is played by Eric Bana who has to put his survival skills to the test as well, especially a violent confrontation in the Berlin Underground. And the heartless espionage chief is played by Cate Blanchett at her most menacing and cold.

There are some relaxing moments along the way, especially as Hanna makes friends with a Moroccan apartment block owner and with a travelling family, the parents (Olivia Williams and Jason Flemyng) amusing in their application of permissive parenting of their two children. In fact, the two children are crucial to the plot in bringing the pursuit to a head.

The film keeps up its rapid pace, is intriguing in its portrayal of its three central characters and the mystery of their relationship, and inserts many action sequences that match any espionage adventure.

In taking us into a murky world of agents, double agents, the complexity of truth and lies, as well as the impersonal schemes created, allegedly for national security but with sometimes devastating personal effects on the subjects, Hanna gives its audience a lot to reflect on as well,

1. Strong drama? Strong characterisations? The world of espionage, hunting spies? The world of biological engineering – and its use for military purposes?

2. The visual style of the film, the flair, the range of camerawork, angles, circling, overhead? Editing and pace? The effect, the excitement? The score, especially the pounding notes for the chases?

3. Audience attitudes towards the Cold War, to spies, to missions and violence, licence to kill? The use of people? Biological engineering? The effect on the children? The background of the clash between the United States and Eastern Europe? The issues of morality, law, justice?

4. The strong cast, the strong performances giving impact to the drama?

5. Finland and the Arctic, the snow-clad forests, the lakes? The contrast with Morocco, the desert, the villages? Spain – and its tourist aspects, sinister aspects? Germany, the city of Berlin, Grimms’ house? The blend of the exotic and the real?

6. The opening, the focus on Hanna, her age, her skill in hunting, the stag, the confrontation, her firing the arrow, missing the stag’s heart? Her father, the attack, their fight, their skills? Dragging the stag back home? The world of Erik and Hanna? Isolated?

7. Hanna’s life, vague memories of her mother, the pictures? The audience gradually informed about the mother, her photo, her death, the visuals of the death, her being shot, the information about her volunteering for the biological engineering, her own mother?

8. Hanna’s life, remote, the reliance on books, Grimms’ fairy tale – and her own life as a variation on a Grimm fairy tale? Sinister? The house, the construction?

9. Basic, survival, her being strong, her father training her, martial arts, the skills of hunting, waiting till she was ready to go on her mission? Emotions and lack of emotions? Physical and psychological strength? Her being urged to hunt, to adapt? The issue of pushing the button – her father going out, her reflection, her decision, pushing the button? His acceptance of this?

10. Erik, his back-story, his life, tough, the various missions, meeting Hanna’s mother, Marissa and her program? Erik’s decision to stop, to hide? His being pursued by Marissa, the accident, his wife’s death? His bringing up Hanna, training her, helping her towards her decisions? His escape, the arrival of the troops at his house, the pursuit, his swimming, killing the police? Making his way to Berlin? Hanna telling him that Marissa was dead? His discovering she was not? Going to see his wife’s mother? His being pursued? The traps, the underground and the fight? Going to the Grimm house? The shooting, his confrontation with Marissa, the escape? His skill in warding off her assistants? Marissa pursuing him, the house, their talking about the past, his anger, the truth, Marissa killing him?

11. Hanna and her mission, being found in the house, being taken, the underground examination, the DNA report? Marissa coming in to interrogate - but the alternate agent? Marissa and her watching on CCTV? Hanna embracing the agent and killing her, her escape? Her skill in the tunnels, outwitting the pursuers? Her surfacing, the desert, her hiding under the car? Walking, encountering the children, her reaction, on the road, joining the family?

12. The portrait of the family, their ideas, arguments? ‘Modern’? The behaviour, analysing the children, analysing the attitudes? Hanna staying? The girl becoming a friend? The boy and the secrets – and the later revelation to the pursuers? Sharing with the girl? Enjoying life, her clothes, with the Spanish boys – and her analytical approach to dating and kissing? The exercise of martial arts?

13. In Morocco, her clothes, the owner of the villa, the room, the television and her not being able to turn it off, the noise, the switches, the fans, her bewilderment? Her escape? The torturing of the owner?

14. Marissa, her monitoring everything? Her personality, her coldness, ruthlessness? Her appearance, her teeth, her obsessiveness? Her history, her being in charge, her dealing with her subordinates, issuing orders, cold commands? Her visiting Isaacs, his lifestyle, the camp manner and dress, the past? Isaacs and his cruelty? The pursuit of Hanna, the torture of the Morocco owner, the surveillance?

15. The trip to Spain, Hanna eluding pursuit, in the roof of the van? Marissa and Isaacs and their finding the boys, getting the information? Hanna and the time in Spain, bonding with the family, in front with Rachel? Their discussions? Her being discovered, the pursuit on road, Isaacs and his henchmen? Her warning Sophie not to follow her? The parents being taken by Isaacs, their being bound, their not knowing anything except Hanna’s well-rehearsed spiel about her origins, her class, her friends? The little boy giving the information?

16. The chase through the containers, hanna on the roof, the fight, the girl watching and her fear and amazement?

17. Hanna, making her way to Berlin, to the Grimm house, finding the friendly man, his knowledge of her mother? His talking, helping – and his later being tortured?

18. The pursuit, meeting with Erik, the truth? Her dismay?

19. Marissa and her pursuit, with Hanna’s mother’s mother, the interrogation, playing the tapes about the biological engineering? Killing the mother? Marissa and her complete malevolence? The chase, confrontation with Hanna? Her death?

20. Hanna, the close-up at the end – her future?

21. The audience and the morality of this world of espionage? Licence to kill? Ruthlessness? Ideologies and lack of ideology, exercise of violence and power?