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Hanna (2011)
A Unique Vision
Hanna has to be one of the coldest action flicks to grace the American silver screen in years. Those hoping for a Hollywood blockbuster designed to bombard the senses with pointless stimuli should avoid this movie. Additionally, those that require crude happy endings and naively cheerful plot developments which run counter to the 'natural' development of a story beware; this film is not meant for you. However, if you find yourself drawn to films which challenge the traditional interpretation of what it means to be a 'good film', movies which exude a sense of radical independence and present themselves as unique visions, then Hanna should be a perfect fit.
It resembles a full-blooded, that is, non-superficial, foreign film. Saoirse Ronan is simply fantastic. Hanna's character is remarkably genuine to her unnatural upbringing. They didn't circumvent the reality of the situation by allowing her to become some "hero" that goes outside of herself solely as to foster heartfelt feelings in the audience. At the same time, they managed to avoid the common mistake of pigeonholing the protagonist into a vacuous one-dimensionality that defines so many characters in modern films. Hanna is portrayed as a real human being, with moments of brilliance and instances of weakness. The real "perfect assassin" would be anything but human.
There is at least one criticism which I would wage against it, albeit a minor one. At certain points in the film, the cinematography goes a little overboard. Techniques meant to convey a sense of chaos and desperateness, such as whirling rotations and disheveled, disjunct camera movements are abused to excess, and as such, end up detracting from the continuity of the plot and actually hinder the expression of the emotion attempting to be emphasized.