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Hanna (film)

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Hanna
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoe Wright
Screenplay by
Story bySeth Lochhead
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAlwin H. Küchler
Edited byPaul Tothill
Music byThe Chemical Brothers
Production
companies
Distributed byFocus Features
Release dates
  • 8 April 2011 (2011-04-08) (United States)
  • 6 May 2011 (2011-05-06) (United Kingdom)
  • 26 May 2011 (2011-05-26) (Germany)
Running time
111 minutes[2]
CountriesGermany
United Kingdom[1]
LanguagesEnglish, with some German, French, Italian, Arabic, and Spanish
Budget$30 million[3]
Box office$63,782,078[3]

Hanna is a 2011 British-German action thriller film that contains prominent fairy tale elements, directed by Joe Wright. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as the title character, alongside Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett. The film was released in North America on 8 April 2011 and in Europe on 5 May 2011.

Plot

Hanna Heller (Saoirse Ronan) is a 15-year-old girl [4][5][6] who lives with her father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana) in the wilderness of northern Finland. The film opens with her hunting and killing a reindeer, first by shooting it with an arrow that just misses its heart, and then killing it with a handgun.

Since age two, Hanna has been trained by Erik, an ex-C.I.A. operative from Germany, to be a skilled assassin. Erik knows a secret that cannot become public. He left the agency, going incognito into the Arctic. Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a C.I.A. officer, wants to kill Erik, who has trained Hanna to kill Wiegler. Hanna reads a bloodstained Grimms' Fairy Tales book frequently, has a great deal of encyclopaedic 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, and is personally unfamiliar with music or electricity. She has memorized a series of fake back-stories for herself to be used "when the time comes".

One night, Hanna tells Erik that she is "ready". Erik digs up a transmitter that will alert the outside world to their presence. Warning Hanna that if Marissa Wiegler ever finds her "she won't stop" until either Hanna or Wiegler is dead, he reluctantly allows Hanna the freedom to make her decision. After some time considering the decision, at least overnight, Hanna slowly flips the switch, sending a signal of their location to Wiegler, who sends a team to Erik's cabin. Erik leaves, instructing Hanna to eventually meet him in Berlin. Hanna kills two of the team when they enter the cabin and then waits for the rest, knowing that they will assume her father to have killed the pair before escaping. She is taken to a large underground C.I.A. complex. Wiegler is suspicious over Hanna's request to talk to her, and decides to send in a body double (Michelle Dockery) instead. Hanna asks the body double where she met her father. The double, who is being fed answers through an earpiece by Wiegler, answers the questions correctly, and Hanna starts to cry and crawl into the lap of the double, sobbing into her shoulder. This makes the officials uneasy, who send soldiers and a doctor to her cell to sedate her to calm her down. As they enter the cell, Hanna kills the double, and then kills several others (stealing a handgun from one of them), breaks free through the ventilation system, and escapes the compound.

She finds herself on the run in the Moroccan[4][7] desert, where Hanna meets Sebastian (Jason Flemyng) and Rachel (Olivia Williams), a bohemian British couple on a camper-van holiday with their teenage daughter, Sophie (Jessica Barden), and their younger son, Miles (Aldo Maland). She sneaks into the family's camper-van and hitches a ferry ride to Spain with the goal of reaching Germany. The family is very nice to her, and she and Sophie become close, and spend some time meeting with some local boys and appreciating the local culture. Meanwhile, Wiegler hires a former agent called Isaacs (Tom Hollander) to capture Hanna before she can reunite with her father in Germany. Hanna travels with the family as they drive north. Isaacs and his men trail them and eventually corner Hanna and the family in France, but after telling Sophie not to follow her and thanking her for being a friend, she manages to escape, killing one of the men after her. Wiegler arrives, interrogates the family, and finds out that Hanna is heading to Berlin from Miles by pretending she intends to protect Hanna.

Arriving at the address her father had told her, Hanna meets with Knepfler (Martin Wuttke), an eccentric old magician, who lives in a Grimm's Fairy Tale themed house in an abandoned amusement park. It's Hanna's 16th birthday and Knepfler makes her breakfast with egg and waffles. He also lets her listen to some music, which she has not had access to in the forest. Hanna plans to rendezvous with her father. However, Wiegler and Isaacs arrive. Hanna escapes, but not before she overhears Wiegler and Isaacs make comments that suggest Erik is not her real father. Now confused, she eventually meets her father at her grandmother's apartment, where Wiegler had tried to find her, and then killed her grandmother. Hanna then learns that Erik is not her father; Erik was actually once a recruiter for a program in which pregnant women were recruited from abortion clinics so that the C.I.A. could alter their children's DNA, enhancing their strength, stamina, and reflexes while suppressing emotions like fear and pity in order to create a batch of super-soldiers. However, the project was shut down for unexplained reasons and all of its subjects eliminated. Erik tried to escape with Hanna and her mother Johanna Zadek (Vicky Krieps), but Wiegler attacked their vehicle, where two-year-old Hanna had been reading her Grimm's Fairy Tales. Wiegler shot Johanna, who then collapsed from gruesome injuries after making away some distance from the burning car, its bumper angled up against a tree. Erik managed to escape with two-year-old Hanna.

Wiegler and Isaacs arrive, intent on killing them; Erik acts as a distraction to allow Hanna to escape. Erik kills Isaacs, but is shot dead by Wiegler, who then goes back to the Grimm house. Hanna is there, having just discovered Knepfler dead, his corpse hung upside down after being used for archery practice by Isaacs. After a chase into the woods toward the abandoned amusement park, Hanna and Wiegler confront one another. Hanna pleads for an end to the killing, saying she does not want to hurt anyone else. Wiegler says she just wants to talk, but Hanna starts walking away. Upset by this act of defiance, Wiegler shoots Hanna, who responds by shooting Wiegler with an arrow she pulled from Knepfler's body, using a bungee cord she found to propel it. Hanna is knocked to the ground with a bullet in her left lower abdomen. She gets up, gets her bearings and follows Wiegler into a tunnel, noticing a deer, and then seeing Wiegler fleeing up a nearby water slide. An unarmed Hanna chases Wiegler to the top of the slide's stairs, as Wiegler continually shoots at her. Near the top, it becomes clear that Hanna's arrow did more damage than Wiegler's bullet, and a disoriented Wiegler falls and slides down the water flume right when she is about to shoot Hanna, dropping her handgun. Hanna follows the wounded Wiegler, picks up the dropped gun, comments on how she just barely missed Wiegler's heart, and shoots her. The bookend scene mirrors the opening of the film in which Hanna hunts and kills the reindeer.

Cast

Production

Filming locations included Lake Kitka in Kuusamo, northeastern Finland, several locations in Germany including Bad Tölz, Potsdam's Studio Babelsberg, the water bridge at Magdeburg, around Kottbusser Tor and Görlitzer Bahnhof in Berlin-Kreuzberg, the abandoned East Berlin amusement park Spreepark,[8] Hamburg and Reeperbahn, as well as Ouarzazate and Essaouira in Morocco.[9] Temperatures during the Finland shoot sometimes fell as low as −33 °C (−27 °F), but Ronan said "Finland did bring out the fairy tale aspects of the story. We were shooting on a frozen lake, surrounded by pine trees covered in snow".[9] Most of the filming occurred at Studio Babelsberg.[10]

Danny Boyle and Alfonso Cuarón were previously attached to direct the film, before it was confirmed that Joe Wright would direct,[11] after Ronan prompted the producers to consider him.[12]

The film's story and script were written by Seth Lochhead[13] while a student in the Writing program at Vancouver Film School.[14] He finalized the script in 2006 with David Farr providing later changes.[15] Lochhead wrote the original story and script on spec.[16] Ronan commented on her character, saying: "We meet her as she goes out on her own, and when she does she is fascinated by everyone and everything she comes across. My favorite quality of hers is that she is non-judgmental; she shows an open mind to, and a fascination with, everything".[9]

Themes and motifs

Reviewers remarked that the setting and style of Hanna significantly depart from a typical action movie.[17][18] According to the official website, the film has "elements of dark fairy tales" woven into an "adventure thriller".[19] Joe Wright, the director, has said that the movie's theme is a "fantasy" about "overcoming the dark side" during the "rites of passage" of adolescent maturation when a child transforms and "has to go into the world".[20] He said that he was influenced by personal exposure every day as he grew up to "violent, dark, cautionary fairy tales" that "prepare children for the future obstacles in the wider world", as well as his "deep love for the mystical qualities of David Lynch movies", by the patterns of narrative that he prefers because of his dyslexia, and by working as a child in his parents' puppetry company.[20]

In an interview with Film School Rejects, Wright acknowledged David Lynch as a major influence on Hanna[21] and also pointed to the The Chemical Brothers' score: "You can expect an extraordinarily loud, thumping, deeply funky score that will not disappoint".[21] The music, including The Devil Is In The Beats[22][23] and The Devil Is In The Details,[24] underscores the movie's stylistics,[20] recalling Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange[25] with musical motifs consistent with Wright's "fairy tale theme"[25] of childhood innocence confronting the modern "synthetic" world.[25] Several reviewers have commented that the movie has a hyper-stylized Kubrickian tone, reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange.[26][27] The "Kubrick-esque" style[28] includes Isaac's "gleeful sadism... at times darkly comedic,"[29] a whistling villain reminiscent of Alex DeLarge.[28] Joe Wright's "love of fairy tales and David Lynch movies"[20] was seen as blending A Clockwork Orange [29][30] and the work of the Brothers Grimm.[29][31]

Richard Roeper judged it to be a "surreal fairy tale" with "omnipresent symbolism".[32] Matt Goldberg said it was "an effective and surreal dark fairy tale"... ..."with a dreamlike sensibility... ...Everything in the picture is slightly askew and provides immediacy to Hanna’s offbeat coming-of-age tale... ...a film that refuses to exist solely in the realm of reality or fairy tale... ...'gritty' realism simply isn’t worthy of the story he’s trying to tell."[33] Fairy tale motifs are strewn through the film.[31][34][35] In the "tightly-edited patchwork of visual iconography, allusion and symbolism"[36] Wiegler is equated with the Big Bad Wolf[29][34][35] or the queen in Snow White.[37] "Classic fairy tale movie tropes abound;"[36] for example, the camera spins in obvious circles as Hanna makes her escape from the underground government facility early in the film, "just as the young heroine’s world is spinning out of control."[36] Peter Bradshaw found the fairy tale mythology "unsubtle".[38] Conversely, some reviewers did not comment on the fairy tale elements,[39][40][41][42] and others did so with expressive reservation.[37][43]

Kyle Munkittrick of Discover Magazine notes that Hanna is in fact a "transhumanist hero". Despite being genetically engineered to have "high intelligence, muscle mass, and no pity", she is still a good-natured person. He says Hanna, "symbolizes the contest between genetics and environment", or, "perhaps more familiarly, nature versus nurture".[44]

Reception

Hanna received mostly positive reviews; it holds a 71% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 203 reviews with the consensus stating "Fantastic acting and crisply choreographed action sequences propel this unique, cool take on the revenge thriller".[45] Justin Chang of Variety states that "Joe Wright's 'Hanna' is an exuberantly crafted chase thriller that pulses with energy from its adrenaline-pumping first minutes to its muted bang of a finish".[46] Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, commenting "Wright combines his two genres into a stylish exercise that perversely includes some sentiment and insight".[47]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, on the other hand, gives the film two of five stars, stating "With its wicked-witch performance from Cate Blanchett, its derivative premise, its bland Europudding location work and some frankly outrageous boredom, this will test everyone's patience."[48] Kenneth Turan, of the Los Angeles Times, states that the film "starts off like a house afire but soon burns itself out". He states that even though the film is "[b]lessed with considerable virtues, including a clever concept, crackling filmmaking and a charismatic star, it ultimately squanders all of them, undone by an unfortunate lack of subtlety and restraint".[49]

According to Hollywood Reporter, Hanna came in second place at the U.S. box office in its first weekend behind Hop.[50] When the film closed on 7 July 2011, it had grossed $40,259,119 in the domestic box office, with a worldwide total of $63,782,078; based on a $30 million budget, the film is considered a financial success.[3]

Awards

Award Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Young Artist Award Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress Saoirse Ronan Nominated [51]

Soundtrack

Main article: Hanna (soundtrack)

References

  1. ^ Chang, Justin (30 March 2011). "Hanna". Variety. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
  2. ^ "Hanna (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. 2011-02-21. Retrieved 2011-09-08.
  3. ^ a b c Hanna at Box Office Mojo
  4. ^ a b Nick Goundry (12 May 2011). "Joe Wright puts locations first filming Hanna in Germany, Finland and Morocco". The Location Guide.
  5. ^ Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub (6 April 2011). "Saoirse Ronan Video Interview HANNA".
  6. ^ "First Look: Saoirse Ronan in Joe Wright's Hanna". /Film.
  7. ^ Seth Lochhead and David Farr. Hanna Screenplay, production draft (see section 81 and subsequent repeated notes in screenplay: this is the Moroccan desert, rather than a Martian desert, which has been contended several times in WP) [1]
  8. ^ http://movies.about.com/od/hanna/a/joe-wright-interview.htm
  9. ^ a b c Raup, Jordan (15 February 2011). "New Images & First Clip From Joe Wright's 'Hanna'". The Film Stage. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
  10. ^ "Start of Principal Photography on Hanna, Joe Wright, UK/ US/ Germany 2010". Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  11. ^ Weinberg, Scott (2009-11-17[last update]). "Joe Wright to Tackle Action With 'Hanna'". blog.moviefone.com. Retrieved 2011-02-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Pilkington, Mark (2011-04-06). "Cineplex Movie Blog – Saoirse Ronan and Eric Bana talk Hanna". cineplex.com. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  13. ^ "Vancouver Film School helped Seth Lochhead realize his ambition for big thriller Hanna". Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  14. ^ "Vancouver Film School assignment turns into multimillion-dollar thriller 'Hanna'". Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  15. ^ "Hanna (Movie Overview)".
  16. ^ "The Year of Living Famously".
  17. ^ Alex Albrecht, Dan Trachtenberg, Jeff Cannata. The Totally Rad Show (Apr 10, 2011) [2]
  18. ^ Christy Lemire (AP critic and host of Ebert Presents at the Movies), Matt Atchity (editor-in-chief of Rottentomatoes.com) and Ben Mankiewicz (host of Turner Classic Movies) on TYT Network (Apr 7, 2011) [3]
  19. ^ Hanna, official site. Focus Features. A Division of NBC Universal.[4]
  20. ^ a b c d John Hiscock The Telegraph (22 Apr 2011) [5]
  21. ^ a b Giroux, Joe (12 October 2010). "New York Comic Con: Joe Wright on His Action Fairy Tale 'Hanna'". Film School Rejects.
  22. ^ CHARTattack Robot Song Of The Day. The Chemical Brothers' "The Devil Is In The Beats" (22 March 2011) [6]
  23. ^ Hanna Soundtrack-Chemical Brothers-The Devil Is In The Beats [7]
  24. ^ Hanna Soundtrack-Chemical Brothers-The Devil Is In The Details [8]
  25. ^ a b c John Jurgensen. In 'Hanna', The Chemical Brothers Get a Piece of the Action. Wall Street Journal blog. [9]
  26. ^ Edward Douglas. Hanna movie review. ComingSoon.com [10]
  27. ^ Montag's Movie Reviews. [11]
  28. ^ a b Movie Review: 'Hanna' (14 April 2011) [12]
  29. ^ a b c d James Berardinelli. Reelviews. (April5, 2011) [13]
  30. ^ jay g. Rotten Tomatoes. (6 April 2011 09:12 AM) [14]/
  31. ^ a b Roger Ebert. Hanna. Sun Times (6 April 2011) [15]
  32. ^ Richard Roeper Reelz Channel [16]
  33. ^ Matt Goldberg. HANNA Review. collider.com (April 8th, 2011 at 8:47 am) [17]
  34. ^ a b Todd McCarthy. Hanna: Movie Review March 30, 2011)[18]
  35. ^ a b James Mottram. Meet the new Hit Girl on the block. totalfilm.com [19]
  36. ^ a b c Kofi Outlaw. Hanna review. Screenrant.(Apr 8, 2011) [20]
  37. ^ a b Manohla Dargis (7 April 2011). "Daddy's Lethal Girl Ventures Into the Big, Bad World". New York Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  38. ^ Peter Bradshaw. Hanna – review. Guardian. (Thursday 5 May 2011)[21]
  39. ^ Turan, Kenneth (8 April 2011). "Movie review: 'Hanna'". Los Angeles Times.
  40. ^ Time Out [22]
  41. ^ Mick LaSalle. 'Hanna' review: Bogus premise, but Ronan great. SF Chronicle (April 8, 2011) [23]
  42. ^ http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2011/06/sff-2011---hanna-review.php
  43. ^ Sukhdev Sandhu (5 May 2011). "Hanna, review". UK: The Telegraph.
  44. ^ Munkittrick, Kyle. "Hanna: A Transhuman Tragedy of Nature vs Nurture". Discover Magazine: Science not Fiction. Kalmbach Publishing Co. Retrieved 2012-06-17.
  45. ^ "Hanna (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  46. ^ Chang, Justin (30 March 2011). "Hanna". Variety. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
  47. ^ Ebert, Roger (7 April 2011). "Hanna". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
  48. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (May 5, 2011). "Hanna". The Guardian. London.
  49. ^ Turan, Kenneth (8 April 2011). "Movie review: 'Hanna' A clever concept and gifted cast, led by Saoirse Ronan, can't offset a lack of subtlety and restraint". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  50. ^ Kilday, Gregg (11 April 2011). "'Hanna' Edges Out 'Arthur' for No. 2 Box Office Spot". The Hollywood Reporter.
  51. ^ "33rd Annual Young Artist Awards". YoungArtistAwards.org. Retrieved March 31, 2012.
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