Hanna And Her Blisters

Introducing Saoirse Ronan as Teenage Mutant Ninja Girl
Review by Tony Freitas

Saoirse Ronan has the wounded eyes and thousand yard stare of someone twice her age. Someone who has known great sorrow, seen too much, felt too much; She's only 17 years old. It's the perfect actor's alchemy for her star turn in Hanna. If only the film served her as well.


Saoirse is 16-year-old Hanna Heller your basic angst-ridden teen. She worries about things like hand to hand combat, the proper way to skin and store a reindeer for the harsh winter months and the best treatment not for acne, but for those pesky blisters she gets from hunting with a cross bow. She also has a strained relationship with her Father-Knows-Best-Father, Erik (Eric Bana). 

It's tough being home schooled by Dad. Classes in honor studies such as chemical warfare, DNA manipulation and advanced chiropractic techniques - can I adjust that neck - have Hanna frazzled, and father and daughter at each other's throats (literally). It's School for Assassins, and the student is on the verge of becoming the master.


Hanna has an interesting premise. Daddy trains ninja girl to avenge her mother's murder. But the film takes Joseph Campbell's heroes journey a little too literally. While some of the set pieces seem fresh and exciting, the story feels like a tired retread of Le Femme Nikita and Run Lola Run with a bit of Gasper Noe's nihilistic despondency thrown in to spice things up. Unfortunately ridiculousness overwhelms the proceedings and the film flails.

Cate Blanchett is villainess / nemesis Marissa Wiegler a sinister covert CIA operative with a deadly connection to Hanna's history. The usually exceptional and sublime actress is, to be kind, not up to the challenge. A terrible and shifting regional accent of unknown origin and an impressive collection of sensible shoes for killing do not a character make and Blanchett never seems to get a grasp on Marissa. It's strictly external theatrics.

All this doesn't mean there isn't fun to be had. Any type of teen empowerment, especially with Hanna's skill set brings me back to those good old teen years of teasing and casual bad behavior. That Hanna can kill you just as easily as she would look at you, sent me on a short mind trip where I rewrote history and kicked some childhood bully ass. And the center section of Hanna becomes a oddly pleasing travelogue of sorts as the teen guerrilla takes up with a free-spirited family vacationing in their motor home. She forges an awkward connection with the family's precocious and outspoken teen daughter Sophie (the fantastic Jessica Barden) and the film's heartbeat flutters and comes to life. Eventually however

Hanna sinks back into its action/revenge roots, the heartbeat becomes irregular and from then on it's variations of anarchy till the end.


Despite some nearly fatal flaws nothing takes away from Saoirse Ronan's haunting performance. Get this young woman a script that's equal to her talents and she'll kick ass and take names. Figuratively, unlike Hanna.