116, Hanna

To date, there have been a few movies with a female child assassin.  Leon, more recently Kick-Ass but this one is a little bit different.

The movie opens in the icy wilderness.  A lone hunter is tracking a deer with a bow and arrow and strikes with almost pinpoint accuracy.  After she proceeds to shoot it point blank in the head and gut the poor beast she is crept up on by a hooded figure who claims "you're dead" a fight breaks out and our two characters proceed to battle in a "mortal kombat" style with the older male pulling no punches about giving the younger female a kicking.  After our hunter takes a small initiative it becomes apparent that this is not ordinary 16 year old Justin Bieber fan!

Father and Daughter, living together without any outside influences for what appears to be her entire short lifetime.  Initially, there are lines and plot stories spoken about that don't make any sense at this point but luckily the film story pans out to explain everything along the way.

Hanna, played by Saorise Ronan has previously had a few good roles in City of Ember, The Lovely Bones and most recently, the Way Back (See Blog 81) but this is definitely her best one to date.  She is brilliant.  Dark and deadly with an air of slight anonymity she is keen to discover her true identity and that of the world around her.  Trained solely by her father, Eric Bana - an ex spy turned rogue, hiding out for his own, and that of his daughters protection the pair are living out a quiet, nomad existence until it becomes time for her to spread her wings, knowing the whole time that when she does they will both be hunted down.

So here come the bad guys!  Led by Cate Blanchett, playing a slightly less darker version of her role in Indie 4 with a strong Southern accent leads the US government's spook division aided by quite a camp little blond oddball with two skinheads as back-up.  Not your first choice of government heavies but under the radar and a nasty temper as lethal as their dress sense!

A tiny cameo from who I believed to be Gemma Arterton goes completely uncredited so I am not even sure if it was her.  If so, the threw her hat into a tiny role after some recent big hitters - hope things are not drying up for this english rose.

Its a strange one this, I enjoyed it but there were parts that did drag out quite a bit.  The small battles that take place are well executed and Hanna is definitely the kid at school you want in your corner!  She bunks in with a travelling family, led by UK legend, Jason Flemyng but its his daughter in this that gets the laughs - the same age as Hanna but from oh, so different backgrounds.  Its her british wit that grabs some of the few laughs in this and her sweet naivety of the big wide world, tied up in her small "Hello magazine" outlook on life.

12A this one and there were plenty of kids in the audience but as mentioned in The Priest (Blog 116) certs seem to be relaxing - My 7 year old could have come along - but no chance!

If deep and meaningful is your thing with a slightly odd requirement of seeing kids kicking the crap out of bad guys then you will love this!

I was in a packed cinema and although there were a gaggle of chuckling teens behind me I managed to zone out and enjoy the movie.  hopefully you will too!

See this if.................................you want to see what Hit Girl would be like, all grown-up!