Hanna

Hanna

I'm going to come out and say it, I loved Hanna.  It's an art house thriller!  It's the best of both worlds!  Normally movies trying to straddle this line flop because they're too slow, removing the thrill.  Hanna is far from slow, even when the camera stands still your finds movement in the carefully wrought settings. It is, in my favorite shitty critic parlance, a non stop thrill ride.
Saoirse Ronan is great again, I've never seen her falter, though I haven't seen The Lovely Bones.  I totally bought her as the genetically engineered teenager out fighting skin heads and army men.  But I also bought her as the sort of Kaspar Hauser feral girl who knows multiple languages but can't turn off a television.  This movie does not work with out her.
The supporting cast is great as well.Olivia Williams and Jason Flemyng are subtle and skilled in their small roles as the parents of a family that befriends Hanna while traveling in Morocco.  Olivia Williams is especially good here.  She's just a role or two away from an Oscar nomination I think.  My favorite though was Cate Blanchett's top henchman played by Tom Hollander.  He goes with sort of a femme tennis pro for the role which I thought was fucking hilarious.  He has two idiot neo-Nazis as under henchmen who aren't that good at anything which is actually probably a more accurate depiction of henching.
Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett are both decent as the second and third leads.  Honestly I think they are overshadowed by the strong supporting performances.  Eric Bana is pretty interchangeable these days, I don't see all that much in his acting to separate him from a lot of actors but he isn't bad.  Blanchett is solid as usual as the villain.  She plays some sort of high ranking CIA operative, though I'm pretty sure the CIA is never explicitly mentioned, who exhibits both obsessive compulsions and a shoe fetish.  Both of which are ultimately her downfall.
The plot is fairly simplistic and not worth discussing at length.  There were a few holes in the movie but they weren't continuity holes so it didn't bother me that much.  Saoirse Ronan's and Joe Wright, they made Atonement together, are a great combination.  A lot of people are comparing this movie to Run, Lola, Run but I think this is better.  I haven't watched Run, Lola, Run since it came out and I bet I watch this one pretty regularly.  It's got that repeat viewing feel.  It's also infinitely better looking than Run, Lola, Run.  The scenes in Finland and Morocco are mesmerizing.  Go see Hanna, it's one of my favorites of the year so far.