Hanna: It's better, but not great ...

I've seen the premise of "young girl assassin" in quite a few different types of media now, but I have to admit the title character in the new movie Hanna, played by Saoirse Ronan, reminds me less of the characters from the anime Gunslinger Girl, Hit-Girl from the movie/comic book series Kick-Ass or the Cassandra Cain Batgirl and more of the character Eli from the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In. I think this is because I liked the character and the film for what it wasn't, in much the same way I wager most of the people who loved Let the Right One In did so less for its own merits and more because it wasn't like Twilight.

Don't get me wrong, Let the Right One In was a good film, and so is Hanna but most of the accolades for the former seemed to be some brand of "Wow, this movie does vampires right, not like those awful, wuss-ass sparklepires." In a similar sense I like this film better than Gunslinger Girl because Hanna as a character has more depth and character growth compared to the blank, albeit often tragic, slates that populate that story. And while I wouldn't call Hanna a girl power character, like Christy Lemire did, I preferred her story of escape and trying to become human through interactions with her peers and a mother figure better than Hit-Girl's journey, where she's mostly influenced by older men.

The film begins in snowy Finland, where Hanna is being brutally trained by her father, ex-CIA agent Erik Heller (Eric Bana) in combat, language and general knowledge but keeps her isolated and ignorant of some technology in the world. After training her to a certain point, Erik allows her to signal the CIA and begin the mission she has long been trained for, which is slowly revealed over the course of the movie. What we do know is that Hanna is constantly pursued by CIA agent Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett). Throughout her journeys, Hanna also meets up with a British family that gives her a taste of a normal life.

Before I watched this film I wondered if the film would be one of exploitation, like so many of these stories are. I didn't get that vibe, and I wondered if I should count that among the movie's flaws, but in the end I believe Erik's motives turn out to be far more altruistic than expected, which leaves a better taste in my mouth. It still doesn't make Hanna a feminist heroine, but that's okay. Assassins by their very definition really shouldn't be.

On that note, the film also does well at making Hanna scary but still sympathetic. I was a little facetious when I compared her to Eli earlier, but they are both essentially dangerous "children" trying to make their way in the ordinary world, and while Hanna's friend Sophie (Jessica Barden) doesn't have a major role the way Oskar does, their relationship has some parallels.

I also really liked Blanchett's character, who I think is one of the more effective villainesses I've seen in awhile. What I like so much about her is how she's a woman but she's still very much the standard military heavy, even down to the Southern accent that Blanchett uses to bark out orders to her subordinates. Even while the character's childlessness occasionally comes into play, it's a role that could have easily been played by a George C. Scott type, but just happens not to be.

On the same note, another refreshing piece of the story, and one that's not really emphasized in the trailers, is how often the conflict and the relationships comes from women: Marissa vs. Hanna, Marissa vs. Hanna's mother and grandmother, Hanna and Sophie, Hanna and Sophie's mother. The film passes the Bechdel's test and passes it often. Erik may have trained Hanna and she may meet up with nice men, but it still feels like in the end women are the driving players of a large part of the tension and character building.

The film's also exciting. I wasn't too fond of the last chase scene, but there are a lot of riveting sequences, especially the one where Hanna escapes from holding. I like the direction, too, especially Joe Wright's nature shots. The action is shot with less quick cuts than the average movie, allowing you to better see what's going on, and The Chemical Brothers' score does wonders for setting the mood. I hadn't been familiar with them before but I really loved their work in this film.

That being said, the film stumbles sometimes. The screenplay isn't sure how adept Hanna is at modern technology. One scene has her scared of an electric teapot and a TV but before the climax happens she's able to research her past on the Internet. The final sequence that compares Marissa quite literally to a big bad wolf after Grimm's fairytales have been used throughout the film in a not-quite-cogent metaphor also made me groan.

Still, it's a decent movie if not a great one. I wouldn't say it's a must see but it's worth checking out, at the very least for Blanchett. It was better than I expected, anyway, which is something I, like Lemire, am glad to say after Sucker Punch and Kick-Ass.