Hanna Rennt

This post also appears online at MediaBlvd Magazine.

This weekend I finally saw Joe Wright's thriller Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan in the title role, and reuniting her with her director from Atonement.  Hanna is a girl raised deep in the forest by her father Erik Heller (Eric Bana), who has trained her to be an intelligent, skilled, fighter and survivalist.  He has raised her with the knowledge that they have one true enemy, Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), who killed her mother and who will stop at nothing to end Hanna's life.  At sixteen, Hanna has learned all that Erik can teach her, and is ready to go out into civilization.  She wants to hear music, see the world, and make a friend.  With this, she knows the battle with Wiegler will come.

Whether or not Erik has been telling Hanna the truth her whole life is very slowly revealed over the course of the film, as is the reasoning behind why Marissa Wiegler could be viewed as a threat.  I didn't know whether to be impressed by Hanna or feel bad for her, or whether she was actually fighting for a good cause or not.  Wright, cinematographer Alwin Kuchler, and editor Paul Tothill do a good job of contributing to the cloaked mysteries by obscuring the high-energy action scenes with usage of handheld camera, optical illusion editing, and some mind-bending camera angles.  In particular, the scene where Hanna is being held in a CIA compound takes on a surreal vibe, when 360-degree camera tracking combines with a motif of circular cameras, tunnels, and windows.

This unsettling feeling of never quite knowing what's what is accompanied by The Chemical Brothers' frenetic score.  I don't know whether it was the music, the augmented reality, or the hyperactive storytelling flourishes, but I got a very 1990s vibe throughout the film.  Unlike Wright's Atonement and Pride and Prejudice (both adaptations), Hanna displays more of his background in music videos, feeling at home alongside films by David Fincher, Danny Boyle, Baz Luhrmann, or Michel Gondry.  Scenes when Hanna struggles to understand the sensory overload of unfamiliar technology in a Moroccan hotel room, or when she later visits a demented storybook house complete with cartoon statuary, contribute to the otherworldliness of the story.  Sometimes it feels a bit over-the-top, such as when Wiegler visits an associate at a German sex club, and the dialogue is written to provoke without contributing in any way to the plot or characters.  Wright does keep his signature tracking shots in top form, but they don't beat the one from Atonement.

Bana's performance is merely fine, but he doesn't really have that much to do, compared to Ronan and Blanchett.  The young star's performance is physically demanding, and she does a good job punctuating her warrior coldness with a love of learning and a genuine fondness for the new friend she makes in English tourist Sophie (Jessica Barden).  Barden was a pleasant surprise, turning what at first seems like a caricature of an annoying teenage brat into a surprisingly multifaceted girl longing to be interesting.  Blanchett plays a villain straight from the pages of a comic strip, with her severe hairstyle, heavy Southern accent, and fixation on dental hygiene.  Olivia Williams and Jason Flemyng contribute enjoyable performances as Sophie's hippie parents.

I considered Hanna to be an art film from its first, atypical hunting sequence, which helped me to overlook flawed story elements that would have been more bothersome if the form of the movie weren't so compelling.  We are, eventually, given just enough backstory to tie up most of the loose ends the story introduces, and the action satisfies enough that the "Why?" is unimportant.  That said, it is never explained how Heller manages to swim across the Baltic Sea in wintertime in a pair of capri pants, but that is a point of contention best left for my dad and I to joke about, as it doesn't really have any bearing on the story.

the academy awards... this time, with more blog!

One of the greatest benefits of being a Film Studies major -- other than personal enrichment, of course -- is the heightened ability to be a braggard. I get to spend my time reading Entertainment Weekly, scouring IMDb and Wikipedia, and watching anything on E! and Vh1, while telling myself is all research. All the time I spend in a matinée at the Laemmle or with a DVD on, I consider to be studying for an edge in my path through the Industry. So it is with great vindication that I announce myself as the winner of this year's Oscar pool. Now, I only won $6.25, but this was my first Oscar pool ever, and it is with pride that I toot my own horn. So here is my amateur account of the results of Sunday night's almost-didn't-happen 80th Academy Awards.

Best Picture - No Country for Old Men

The Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, unsurprisingly took top billing at this year's primo awards show. While I would never have voted for it as being the best of anything, it certainly had wonderful performances across the board, interesting filmmaking choices (notably the lack of music), and portrayed an unusual worldview. In my opinion, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood deserved the award more, but No Country was always going to win.

Best Directing - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Hand in hand with the best pic award for the film (just seeing Sam Rudin on TV gives me shivers), Joel and Ethan Coen were awarded their second Oscar for directing. I keep promising to watch Fargo, and I loved Raising Arizona and O Brother, Where Art Thou, so I can see why they won even if the film wasn't my favorite. Just like PTA did in Blood, they counterbalanced violent characters against sweeping pastoral landscapes, but the claustrophobic world within a motel room was where the Coens shone with this film.

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Had Daniel Day-Lewis not been awarded Best Actor, there absolutely would have been blood, if I had anything to say about it! *rimshot* He has shown, once again, his devotion to the craft of acting (when he's not making shoes, of course), and his superhuman ability to transform into another person so completely. His Daniel Plainview was so believable a lonely tyrant that I couldn't help but feel for him even when I couldn't agree with his actions. I'm past due for a Day-Lewis retrospective, as it's been years since I've watched My Left Foot or Last of the Mohicans. So hammy Sir Olivier takes issue with Method acting, if it makes Day-Lewis turn out the kinds of performances that he does, then I say to hell with Olivier! [/vitriol]

Best Actress in a Leading Role - Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

I haven't seen La Vie en Rose, so all I can say about Best Actress Marion Cotillard's performance is secondhand. Her physical transformation, at least, was remarkable, and everything I've read about her dedication to learning how to mirror Edith Piaf's tics and performance styles has been incredibly respectable. Of the performances I did see, my vote was for the wonderful Laura Linney, but I can see why the Academy would have gone for a perhaps more demanding performance than one as restrained as Linney's.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

No one was surprised that Javier Bardem won Best Supporting actor, so I don't have much to say here. He certainly put on quite a show as Anton Chigurh, which is evident once you see how adorable he is in interviews. Also, I'm reminded to finally watch El Mar Adentro, as I've wanted to for years. Also, Bardem is about as Spanish as they get. Did you see his mama's jewelry?

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Though I expected Cate Blanchett to win Best Supporting Actress, I'm not surprised that this would have been the category to get Michael Clayton as award. Unfortunately, traffic kept me from the screening I was hoping to attend the other night, so I have to wait until it comes in my Netflix soon. I can say, however, that Swinton's eccentric acceptance speech was just what I wanted from her. She is the one reason why I can't fully regret having seen Constantine (in theaters, no less - it was not my decision), so I'm glad to see her so well-respected.

Best Writing (Original Screenplay) - Diablo Cody, Juno

Diablo Cody's win for Juno was both expected and endearing. I read her screenplay after I saw the film, but it's definitely for more than just her previous employment choices that she's Hollywood's "It Girl" new screenwriter. Some of the dialogue is a bit hamfisted ("honest to blog," seriously?), but the relationships and themes are so believable, and the voice so unique, that I'm very glad she won. I know she's gotten flack for being a one-trick pony, but I think that her ability to write a smart young female character, and an aging manchild more believable than anything Matthew McConaughey might play, is hard to find these days.

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

I haven't read Cormac McCarthy's novel, but against Atonement and There Will Be Blood, I can understand why this award-sweeping film's screenplay would have won. I haven't read Upton Sinclair's Oil! either, but I've read that PTA took a lot of liberties with his adaptation, and I certainly would never have voted for Chris Hampton's take on Ian McEwan's outstanding novel. As for the other two nominees, I'm afraid I'm out of the loop.

Best Cinematography - Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood

Of all of the beautiful shots in all of the nominated films in this category, There Will Be Blood was absolutely saturated with them. It's difficult to tear your eyes away from the characters whenever they're staring each other down, but there are certain moments when the world of the film just screams with poetic juxtaposition. The most striking of these occurs when Eli Sunday marches towards Daniel Plainview, determined to get an answer about a previously made promise. He strides past a pool of oil glistening on the scorched California earth, and the clear expanse of blue sky dotted with unassuming clouds is perfectly, crisply reflected in the black gold. Stunning.

Best Music (Score) - Dario Marianelli, Atonement

Marianelli is officially the only Joe Wright return collaborator that I am impressed with. Though I enjoyed Atonement greatly, it wasn't that swell of an adaptation, and Keira Knightley was only slightly less obnoxious than she was in Pride & Prejudice. [Though I must say, she perfectly fits McEwan's physical description of Cecilia.] The film's score is one of the most enrapturing elements of the beautiful story, tying together a wonderfully WWII appropriate piano theme with recurring intrusions of typewriter sound. Without the score, this film would have been something entirely different. Take that, Dogme 95!

Best Music (Song) - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, "Falling Slowly," Once

John Stewart, who did a much better job hosting this year than he did a couple of years ago, totally won my "favorite Oscar host ever" award when he (or whichever of the show's producers, whatevs) let Marketa go back onstage to give a speech after she was cut off the first time around. Once and its beautiful music affected me so strongly, I don't really know how to quantify my pleasure at the fact that it got some critical recognition during awards season. Please, please, for the love of art, see Once. Oh, and Amy Adams is a darling, and I hope that she gets cast in the first run of the inevitable Broadway adaptation of Enchanted, which would do very well on stage.


So, I can't really say much about the other "big" categories...editing/mixing? Well, I saw some of the dailies from the Bourne Ultimatum, and it was so shaky that I can't imagine I'd be able to sit through the entire thing without a little dizziness. Ratatouille as best animated feature? Couldn't watch it, as I dealt with a horrifying rodent problem last year when I moved into a new apartment, and I don't think I will be seeing it anytime soon. I will be seeing Persepolis this weekend though, after I finish reading Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel. I thought it had a shot of winning as it wasn't eligible for Best Foreign Language feature, but apparently Ratatouille was the fan favorite of the year. I didn't see any of the shorts or the foreign language nominees, I'm afraid, so all I can say there is that The Counterfeiter looks pretty fantastic.

Again, sorry for being so lax with posting these past few months. I'm trying to up my media intake, so hopefully I'll be able to vent my musings with some frequency in the future. That's all, folks!