Friend’s Father – Hanna, what did your mother die of?
Hanna – Three bullets.

Who needs Bourne when you got Hanna?

Yeah, who needs Jason Bourne when you have a pretty young gal with a doctorate in Bournology.

New Kick-Ass
It’s been some time since we watched a nice action film starring a young girl.

Man, Kick-Ass seems like a million years back.

So we were more than thrilled to hear about the new action film Hanna featuring the young Irish actress Saoirse Ronan.

In the style of Bourne or Bond movies, Hanna is an action film that moves at a blistering pace, leaving little time for you to exercise your brain cells.

Chases, fights, gun-shots and bodies dropping to the floor at frequent intervals are de rigueur for this genre of films and Hanna doesn’t disappoint on this score.

The movie opens in the Arctic landscape where Hanna and her father Eric Heller, a former CIA operative live in the woods, far away from civilization.

Hanna has been raised in this remote icy corner of the planet by her father who is her sole teacher. Besides history, geography and science, Hanna’s coursework includes hunting and strong fighting skills.

Fighting skills that Hanna puts to amazing use once she leaves the comfort of the icy wasteland for the heat and dust of civilization.

Of course, it’s a nefarious CIA plot as it usually is in Hollywood movies and there are rogue agents working to stop Hanna and her father.

Why the CIA and the goons hired by the agency are after Hanna or her father we don’t understand until much later in the film.

No matter. One bad guy after another is quickly dispatched in a ruthless and efficient fashion. And the movie moves from Morocco to Spain and ultimately to the final destination, Berlin.

The fight scenes involving Hanna are handled well, both the one in the container yard and the earlier scene in the CIA bunker.

Cate Blanchett plays Marissa Wiegler, the rogue agent behind it all. Blanchett’s Marissa seems like a cold-blooded automaton, reminiscent of movies from the 1950s and 1960s when bad guys behaved differently from normal human beings as if they had something different in their bodies.

When we ultimately get to know the real reason and the old, discarded CIA project, it really doesn’t matter much for that’s a mere pause in this adrenalin rush of a film.

Fine Performance
Saoirse Ronan plays the part of Hanna with great aplomb and a confidence belying her age.

Our crystal ball sees interesting things in Saoirse’s future.

Can we even imagine an Indian movie resting on the fragile shoulders of a 17-year-old girl? Of course, not. Don’t even ask. 🙁

By the way, Saoirse has already won several kudos for her acting including an Academy Award nomination for her performance  in the 2007 film Atonement.

Joe Wright has ably directed Hanna based on the story by Seth Lochhead.

SearchIndia.com recommends Hanna. The movie is playing in theaters across the U.S.

  Bourne, Kick-Ass