When director Joe Wright and star Saoirse Ronan reteamed for 2011’s “Hanna” after the success of Oscar-winning period drama “Atonement,” most people probably weren’t expecting them to come up with a propulsive, fast-paced action movie.
As someone who was dazzled by Wright’s stylized approach to highbrow literary material in “Pride & Prejudice” and “Atonement,” I would have been happy to see him continue in that vein, but “Hanna” dazzled me in an entirely different way, and it remains one of the best and most underrated action movies of the past 15 years.
While Wright’s subsequent career as a director has been uneven, Ronan has justifiably gone on to become a major star, with further Oscar nominations for “Brooklyn,” “Lady Bird” and “Little Women.”
One thing she hasn’t done, though, is take on any large-scale blockbuster roles, and “Hanna” is the closest that anyone will get to seeing her as a superhero. It’s now streaming on Netflix, ready for rediscovery by fans of stylish, engaging action movies.
‘Hanna’ is essentially a superhero origin story
It’s clear from the opening scene that Hanna (Ronan) is no ordinary teenager. She stalks a deer in the remote snow-covered forest of Finland, efficiently killing it before being ambushed by her father Erik Heller (Eric Bana), who tests her hand-to-hand combat skills and orders her to drag the deer carcass back to their cabin herself because she didn’t anticipate his attack well enough.
Hanna has spent her whole life living in those woods with Erik, as he prepares her for a mysterious threat from the outside world.
It’s not just the training that has honed Hanna into a weapon. Erik loves her but also seems intimidated by her, and her strength, speed, agility and intellect appear to be enhanced. She’s a teen-girl version of a super-soldier like Captain America, having been genetically modified in the womb to maximize certain traits.
That makes her a target, which is what Erik has been trying to protect her from, but now that she’s gotten older, she insists on fighting her enemies directly. Hanna’s main adversary is Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a ruthless CIA agent with a honey-sweet Southern accent, who has no qualms about murdering a teenage girl if it helps cover up her failed top-secret project.
Wright and screenwriters Seth Lochhead and David Farr deliver their own version of a Black Widow movie a decade before Marvel’s official adaptation, without the constraints of an interconnected cinematic universe or years of accumulated comic-book lore.
“Hanna” draws on both the espionage and superhero genres to present a story that’s familiar and archetypal but also vibrant and inventive.
‘Hanna’ mixes arresting visuals with affecting performances
As he did in his previous movies, Wright takes a bold visual approach to telling the story, beginning with that opening hunting sequence. When Hanna prepares to end the deer’s life, Wright shows her reflection in the dying animal’s eye. Reflections like that are a key visual motif in the film, and Wright always finds creative ways to depict both dynamic action and quiet reflection.
Wright’s talent for elaborate single-take sequences is on display in a bravura late-film fight scene between Erik and a group of Marissa’s henchmen in a deserted subway station. The pulse-pounding electronic score from the Chemical Brothers syncs up with the sometimes impressionistic editing to turn chase scenes into compact music videos, taking inspiration from Tom Tykwer’s cult classic “Run Lola Run.”
Following her Oscar nomination for “Atonement,” Ronan (who was 16 herself at the time) brings the same emotional intensity to her performance as Hanna, bringing out the loneliness and vulnerability in this almost feral girl.
Hanna forms a bond with British tourist Sophie (Jessica Barden), a fellow teenager who talks big about sex and fashion, but is also simply longing for human connection. The tender moments between Hanna and Sophie — as well as between Hanna and Erik — make it clear that she’s more than just a covert science experiment gone rogue.
Wright mixes in fairy-tale symbolism throughout the movie, including in a climax set at a derelict Brothers Grimm-themed amusement park. Hanna is part Black Widow, part Jason Bourne, and part Little Red Riding Hood, out for revenge on the wolf who destroyed her family. Ronan embodies all of those aspects, and Wright makes sure that viewers never want to take their eyes off her.
“Hanna” is now streaming on Netflix.
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