"Hanna"

Okay, so what's one thing we all have learned by this point?

Well... it's that little girls kicking ass and killing grown men has that wierd tendency to skirt the line between absolutely outrageous (in more ways than one) and pretty awesome.

But subdued? How do we get that?

Well... let's let today's movie answer that, shall we?

Hanna

Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) has been growing up in a forest in Eastern Europe all her life with her father, Eric Heller (Eric Bana). When he feels she is ready to go out into the world, then, the U.S. government comes in and takes Hanna hostage. After escaping, Hanna ends up going throughout the world while being chased by CIA agent Marissa (Cate Blanchett) while experiencing everything she never saw in the forest during her youth.

And that's about it. It's a wierd fusion of a fairy tale and a Jason Bourne movie. Complete with shaky-cam, of course, but in this case we actually do have some idea of what's happening in the movie's action scenes. And they're exciting, by the way. All of the action scenes do their job.

But the stylistic use of the camera is honestly one of the movie's strongest points. The use of camera and sound are both extremely effective: both facets are used to emphasize the many facets of the world that we would take for granted, but that Hanna would not be used to at all. It's a fascinating style of cinematography, and fortunately it almost always works to the movie's advantage.

It helps reinforce the atmosphere and really builds Hanna better than any words could have. And that's another thing: the character of Hanna is incredible. A very strong performance from Saiorse Ronan of course helps create Hanna in a way that very few actresses would have been able to, but everything in the film helps build her as well. It's a case of some of the most effective character-building I've seen this year.

If there's one thing I have to say about this movie that I didn't like... I felt it ended a little too early, and towards the end it lost a little bit of steam from many of the things that made the first two acts so interesting. I think part of it may be that it stopped relying on all the things that made it so interesting in the first place, as the style stopped highlighting all the differences so much. It also doesn't help that the plot of the movie is rushed to a conclusion towards the end, in such a way that the plot becomes a little too overpowering to everything that is happening.

But other than that small hicup, Hanna as a whole is a fascinating thing. There's very little that needs to be said about a movie that can make everything work with the central character, especially the camera style. With this, and some very well-done action scenes that we can see, this is a movie you'd be doing yourself a disservice to miss.

3.5/4

Most definitely worth checking out.

This is Herr Wozzeck Reviews. I'll see you guys next time.