Hanna [DVD]

Product Description Award-winning director Joe Wright creates a boldly original suspense thriller with Hanna, starring Academy Award®-nominee Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones, Atonement) in the title role. Raised by her father (Eric Bana of Star Trek), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland, Hanna’s upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own (Academy Award®-winner Cate Blanchett). As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity. Special Features: Feature Commentary with Joe Wright Alternate ending Deleted Scenes Anatomy of a Scene: The Escape from Camp G Amazon.co.uk Review With a career built on prestige period dramas like Atonement and Pride & Prejudice, Joe Wright has given Hanna, his first foray into the action genre, the same mannered house style--turning a potential career left-turn into something of a busman's holiday. Saoirse Ronan plays Hanna, a home-schooled teen assassin who can take out out a pack of government agents like she's making a wish. She is being prepared by her black-ops father (Eric Bana) for a showdown with the CIA spy-catcher (Cate Blanchett) that murdered her mother and forced them into the icy wilds of northern Finland. When the time comes, Hanna re-enters civilisation with wide-eyed curiosity--she's never encountered music, TV or even a light switch before--and, as designed, these petals of innocence only intensify the moment when her sabre-toothed killing skills are unleashed to a thumping score by The Chemical Brothers. But just as the film is about to settle, Bourne-style, into the familiar tracks of an identity quest, Hanna veers off in search of a different kind of self-knowledge, and the middle third of the film is a folksy coming-of-age travel diary in which Hanna, drifting through the Moroccan countryside, experiences music, friendship and the open road. Fortunately, the slower scenes are carried by a strong cast: Saoirse Ronan has a wraithlike physical charisma, while Tom Hollander (The Thick of It) is pure venom as the Euro-trash sadist employed to hunt her down. The film's action-packed final lap, set in the ruins of a Brothers Grimm-themed amusement park, feels like all the corruption and cruelty of the world being reduced to wreckage at the bare hands of a willowy teenage girl. --Leo Batchelor