After spending numerous years at the top of the “Best Unproduced Screenplay” list Seth Locheand and David Farr’s Hanna finally made it to the big screen with Joe Wright (Atonement, The Soloist) at its helm. The film stars Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) as Hanna, a young girl raised in isolation by her father (Eric Bana). Hanna has been trained as an assassin so that she might one day track down Marissa (Cate Blanchett), the intelligence agent responsible for her mother’s death.
Hanna feels like it takes place in a parallel world where violence is constantly lurking behind the heightened reality. It’s not quite as gritty as Leon: The Professional or as comic book as Kick-Ass but it is equally as quirky and occasionally bizarre. It is these strange, seemingly Terry Gilliam influenced, moments that the film works best. The rundown fantasy theme park being my favorite setting as it effectively balances the violence of Hanna’s world with the childlike innocence that she also possesses.
I loved Hanna when I saw it in theaters. Watching the film a second time wasn’t nearly as exhilarating as the middle section of the film where Hanna travels with a bohemian family seemed slower and less interesting when compared to the rest of the movie. That complaint aside, Hanna is a wildly entertaining ride.
Bonus features include a great audio commentary with Joe Wright that covers just about everything you’d want to know about the making of the film. There is also an alternate ending that is more or less an additional scene that could have easily been added to the theatrical release or as an after-credits scene. It doesn’t change the story; it just briefly expands it. The rest of the extra content is made up of brief behind-the-scenes featurettes and glossy promotional material.
