HANNA

HANNA starts off promising enough holding one’s attention, but then drops the ball in the second half. The ending turns out to be depressing and repetitive.

The movie opens up with Hanna, a teenage girl living in a snowbound cabin in the forest, wounding a deer with an arrow, then shooting it. Soon, it’s revealed that her father, Erik, is training her for something big while they hide out from the authorities. The authorities turn out to be a CIA team, led by a redheaded Southern Belle named Marissa Wiegler.

Finally, Hanna tells Erik that she’s ready to leave, and she turns in a switch that will reveal her whereabouts. As Hanna waits for the CIA team to appear, Erik puts on a suit and walks away, apparently back to civilization. When the CIA team appears, Hanna kills a few of them, then waits for capture.

After capturing Hanna, the CIA puts her into an underground cell. Hanna asks to speak to Melissa, but the CIA sends in an imposter. Thinking that the imposter is really Melissa, however, Hanna, kills her, then shoots her way out of the cell. A chase scene ensues, with Hanna leaving the underground facility and finding herself in the Moroccan desert. Thinking that Melissa is dead, Hanna hides out with an English family, including another girl her age with whom Hanna becomes friends.

Meanwhile, Melissa sends a team of assassins after her while Erik makes his way to the Berlin rendezvous he set up with Hanna before they parted. Likewise, Hanna tries to make her way to Berlin as she crosses into Spain with the English family.

The question arises, Why does Melissa want Hanna and Erik dead? And, what kind of person has Erik created in his daughter?

Regrettably, the answer that comes with these questions turns out to be rather mundane and uninteresting. The answer also leads to a depressing, violent ending that leaves more questions. Also, at one point, Melissa captures the English family and tries to grill them about where Hanna was headed, but the movie never tells us what happens after that to this family. Finally, the movie’s ending and resolution also contains annoying drumbeat music followed by a quirky pop song that makes no sense.

HANNA’s director, Joe Wright, burst on the scene in 2005 with the MOVIEGUIDE® Award winning PRIDE & PREJUDICE. He’s gone pretty much downhill since then by creating quirky, mostly unappealing movies like ATONEMENT, THE SOLOIST and now HANNA. Quirky movies seldom work, especially if you don’t offer something more uplifting and wholesome to moviegoers that either can drive them to tears, inspire them with true heroism or integrity, and/or bring them to real joy or laughter. Movies like ATONEMENT or HANNA may please secular critics or one’s closest friends, but the mainstream audience will reject them – and for good reason!