Art house and action are two worlds of cinema we do not often think to consider together, and with good reason. Art house filmmaking is about expression and concept and form, action is about big booms, swift quicks, and big muscle brutes. In theory it would be like marriage between Lady Gaga and Rick Santorum. Then something happened, Joe Wright got bit by the same bug a lot of filmmakers felt this year...he said to himself "I'm gonna take the action genre and show it who's daddy." Then he made this gem of a film that so few people saw.
Hanna follows Hanna, a young girl raised in the arctic by her father. He trains her in stealth, languages, hand to hand combat, and weaponry. Then one day they press a button that alerts her father's pursuer, Marissa, to their location. This initiates a delightfully twisting fantasy action film pumped to the brim with a soundtrack by the chemical brothers and shot with some dazzling cinematography all leading up to a very very satisfying ending.
Wright has peopled his characters with some of the best in the biz. Saoirse Ronan plays Hanna here with the same commitment that she played Briony Tallis in Atonement where she was nominated. Her character her isn't as obviously awards worthy but I dare you to argue with her that Hanna didnt require more from her emotionally and physically than Briony did. For being a slight and pretty girl Ronan gives Hanna an intense physicality where a moment never comes that you think she would be overpowered by the men and woman who hunt her.
Hanna's adversary comes in the form of the incomparable Cate Blanchett. Blanchett here dons her best generic american accent and turns into a charming, desperate, devious snake of a woman. Her search for Hanna and her father, played with vulnerability by Bana, resembles that of a cat after its prey. Marissa, ever cool, seems to almost play with her food before she gets bored and goes for the kill. Blanchett knows what she's doing with any character, she knows how to use her eyes and curling smile to evoke any feeling she desires. Look at her diversity from Galadriel to Daisy in Benjamin Button to Marissa here, Blanchett never phones it in, but is always in full control.
So the film, like the others is carried on the backs of a couple strong performances, so what? So what indeed. This film has an almost inexplicable greatness to it in the way Captain America did. It takes a dying genre full of cliches and silliness and grounds it in something refreshing like style and ideas. Hanna is a visceral, thrilling, and pretty damn awesome. It is without a doubt the best full-blown action film of the year, and one of the most interesting examinations of love, but lets not get into that.
No comments:
Post a Comment