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Hanna (film)

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Hanna
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJoe Wright
Screenplay byDavid Farr
Seth Lochhead
Story bySeth Lochhead
Produced byLeslie Holleran
Marty Adelstein
Scott Nemes
StarringSaoirse Ronan
Eric Bana
Cate Blanchett
CinematographyAlwin H. Küchler
Edited byPaul Tothill
Music byThe Chemical Brothers
Production
companies
Distributed byFocus Features
Release dates
  • April 8, 2011 (2011-04-08) (United States)
  • May 6, 2011 (2011-05-06) (United Kingdom)
  • May 26, 2011 (2011-05-26) (Germany)
Running time
111 minutes[1]
CountriesTemplate:Film Germany
Template:Film UK
Template:Film US
LanguagesEnglish
German
French
Italian
Arabic
Spanish
Budget$30 million[2]
Box office$63,782,078[2]

Hanna is a 2011 European-American action thriller film directed by Joe Wright. The film stars actress Saoirse Ronan as the title character with Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett. The film was released in North America on April 8, 2011 and in Europe on May 5, 2011.

Plot

Hanna Heller (Saoirse Ronan) is a 16-year-old girl[3][4][5] who lives with her father, Erik Heller (Eric Bana) in the wilderness of Finland. Ever since she was two years old, Hanna has been trained by Erik to become a multilingual assassin. As part of her training, she has never come into contact with modern technology and has memorized a series of fake back stories for herself to be used "when the time comes".

One night, Hanna tells Erik that she is "ready", and he gives her a box containing an old transmitter that will alert the outside world to their presence. After analyzing the situation, Hanna flips the switch, sending a signal of her location to Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), a CIA officer. Marissa sends a team to Erik's cabin, where Hanna, who had been waiting for them, is captured and taken to a CIA safe house in Morocco. There, she discovers that Erik is a former CIA agent who betrayed the agency and knows a secret that cannot become public. Marissa has been assigned to kill him, but Erik has trained Hanna to kill Marissa. Knowing that Hanna was captured too easily, Wiegler sends a body double (Michelle Dockery) to speak with Hanna. Hanna kills the double, breaks free and escapes the compound.

While on the run through the desert, Hanna meets Sebastian (Jason Flemyng) and Rachel (Olivia Williams), and befriends their teenage daughter Sophie (Jessica Barden). They decide to help her go to Berlin, after she tells them her fake back story. Meanwhile, Wiegler hires a night club owner called Isaacs (Tom Hollander) to capture Hanna while she goes after Erik, who is in Germany. Later, Isaacs and his men corner Hanna and the family, but she manages to escape after killing one of Isaacs' men. The son of the captured family, who is intrigued by Hanna, is tricked into telling Wiegler that Hanna is heading for Berlin. The fate of the family is not revealed.

In Berlin, Hanna meets with one of her father's associates, a clown who lives in an abandoned amusement park in order to rendezvous with her father. However, Wiegler and Isaacs locate them and kill Erik's associate with arrows, but Hanna escapes. She eventually meets with her father at her grandmother's apartment, where she discovers that Wiegler has murdered her grandmother. Hanna learns that Erik is not her father, and it is revealed that Erik was once a recruiter for a program in which pregnant women were recruited from abortion clinics so that the CIA could alter their children's DNA, enhancing their strength, stamina, and reflexes while suppressing emotions like fear and empathy in order to create a batch of super-soldiers. The project was deemed a failure and all the women and their genetically-modified children were eliminated. Erik tried to escape with Hanna and her mother Johanna Zadek (Vicky Krieps), but Wiegler murdered Johanna before Erik could escape with her and Hanna to their cabin.

As Erik finishes explaining the truth to a bewildered Hanna, Wiegler and Isaacs arrive, intent on killing them; Erik acts as a distraction to allow Hanna to escape. Erik kills Isaacs and his cohort, but is shot and killed by Wiegler, who then chases Hanna back to the abandoned amusement park. Hanna pleads for an end to the killing, but Wiegler shoots Hanna, who in turn wounds Wiegler with an improvised bow-and-arrow. As Wiegler attempts to flee, Hanna hunts her to the top of a tall slide; a disoriented Wiegler falls down the slide, dropping her gun. Hanna picks up the gun, commenting how she missed Wiegler's heart, and shoots her dead, mirroring an event (one involving a caribou) in the beginning of the film.

Cast

Production

Filming locations included are Lake Kitka in Kuusamo at Northeast Finland and several locations in Germany, including Bad Tölz, Potsdam's Studio Babelsberg, the water bridge at Magdeburg, the abandoned East Berlin amusement park Spreepark,[6] and Hamburg Reeperbahn, and then Ouarzazate and Essaouira in Morocco.[7] Temperatures during the Finland shoot sometimes fell as low as -33°C, but Ronan said "Finland did bring out the fairy tale aspects of the story. We were shooting on a frozen lake, surrounded by pine trees covered in snow."[7] Most of the filming occurred at Studio Babelsberg.[8] Danny Boyle and Alfonso Cuarón were previously attached to direct the film, before it was confirmed that Joe Wright would direct it,[9] after Ronan prompted the producers to consider him.[10]

The film's story and script were written by Seth Lochhead[11] while a student in the Writing program at Vancouver Film School.[12] He finalized the script in 2006 with David Farr providing later changes.[13] Lochhead wrote the original story and script on spec.[14] Ronan commented on her character, saying: "We meet her as she goes out on her own, and when she does she is fascinated by everyone and everything she comes across. My favorite quality of hers is that she is non-judgmental; she shows an open mind to, and a fascination with, everything."[7]

In an interview with Film School Rejects, Wright cited David Lynch as a major influence on Hanna. On The Chemical Brothers' score, he said: "You can expect an extraordinarily loud, thumping, deeply funky score that will not disappoint."[15]

Marketing

On December 20, 2010, the first official trailer was released, the international trailer being released on February 3, 2011.[16] On March 11, 2011, Focus Features released two television advertisements for their movie, which can be viewed on their YouTube account under the playlist "Hanna".[17][18] The official soundtrack, composed by The Chemical Brothers, was released 1 March 2011 on iTunes.[19]

Universal Studios set up a promotional foursquare campaign featuring UK retailer hmv to celebrate the UK release of Hanna on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The campaign ran from 25th–28th August and invited fans of the film to participate in a 'Hunt for Hanna' to be in with a chance of winning a trip for two to Berlin. The competition took place in 3 locations around the UK and involved participants solving clues and checking into 6 locations within their city to be in with a chance of winning. All missions were set by the film's fictional character 'Marissa Wiegler' and the participants were encouraged to interact with her by notifying the character via email of when their mission was complete.

Reception

Hanna received generally positive reviews; it holds a 72% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 189 reviews with the consensus stating "Fantastic acting and crisply choreographed action sequences propel this unique, cool take on the revenge thriller."[20] Justin Chang of Variety states that "Joe Wright's 'Hanna' is an exuberantly crafted chase thriller that pulses with energy from its adrenaline-pumping first minutes to its muted bang of a finish."[21] Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, commenting "Wright combines his two genres into a stylish exercise that perversely includes some sentiment and insight".[22]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, on the other hand, gives the film two of five stars, stating "With its wicked-witch performance from Cate Blanchett, its derivative premise, its bland Europudding location work and some frankly outrageous boredom, this will test everyone's patience."[23]

According to Hollywood Reporter, Hanna came in second place at the U.S. box office in its first weekend behind Hop.[24] When the film closed on July 7, 2011, it had grossed $40,259,119 in the domestic box office, with a worldwide total of $63,782,078; based on a $30 million budget, the film is considered a success.[2]

Soundtrack

Main article: Hanna (soundtrack)

References

  1. ^ "Hanna (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. 2011-02-21. Retrieved 2011-09-08.
  2. ^ a b c Hanna at Box Office Mojo
  3. ^ http://www.thelocationguide.com/blog/2011/05/joe-wright-puts-locations-first-filming-hanna-in-germany-finland-and-morocco/
  4. ^ http://collider.com/saoirse-ronan-interview-hanna/84774/
  5. ^ "First Look: Saoirse Ronan in Joe Wright's Hanna". /Film.
  6. ^ http://movies.about.com/od/hanna/a/joe-wright-interview.htm
  7. ^ a b c Raup, Jordan (February 15, 2011). "New Images & First Clip From Joe Wright's 'Hanna'". The Film Stage. Retrieved March 26, 2011.
  8. ^ "Start of Principal Photography on Hanna, Joe Wright, UK/ US/ Germany 2010". Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  9. ^ Weinberg, Scott (2009-11-17[last update]). "Joe Wright to Tackle Action With 'Hanna'". blog.moviefone.com. Retrieved 2011-02-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Pilkington, Mark (2011-04-06). "Cineplex Movie Blog – Saoirse Ronan and Eric Bana talk Hanna". cineplex.com. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  11. ^ "Vancouver Film School helped Seth Lochhead realize his ambition for big thriller Hanna". Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  12. ^ "Vancouver Film School assignment turns into multimillion-dollar thriller 'Hanna'". Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  13. ^ "Hanna". Retrieved 2011-02-17. {{cite web}}: Text "A Focus Features Film" ignored (help); Text "Movie Overview" ignored (help)
  14. ^ "The Year of Living Famously".
  15. ^ Giroux, Joe (12 October 2010). "New York Comic Con: Joe Wright on His Action Fairy Tale 'Hanna'". Film School Rejects. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
  16. ^ "Exclusive Thriller:'Hanna'". MSN Movies UK. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
  17. ^ "Hanna TV Spot – Who is Hanna?". YouTube. 14 March 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
  18. ^ "FocusFeatures's Channel: Hanna Playlist". YouTube. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
  19. ^ "Hanna (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by The Chemical Brothers". iTunes. 1 March 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
  20. ^ "Hanna (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  21. ^ Chang, Justin (30 March 2011). "Hanna". Variety. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
  22. ^ Ebert, Roger (April 7, 2011). "Hanna". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved April 8, 2011.
  23. ^ "Hanna". The Guardian. London. May 5, 2011.
  24. ^ "'Hanna' Edges Out 'Arthur' for No. 2 Box Office Spot".
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