Hanna

Saw Hanna, the story of a pretty little girl raised in the wild by wolves and CIA hitmen, who speaks twenty different languages and who can kill a man at thirty paces just by snarling at them. The film's premise is ludicrous, but most of it is spent watching her slowly learn to feel. This becoming-human thing is represented by her appreciation for music, usually involving spanish guitars, calimbas, or other signifiers of earthy, soul-full music. On the antagonistic side of things, there's the wicked, red-headed and beautifully coiffed CIA handler who is trying to bring her in. Her music is German techno-pop and dubstep. The film uses these styles in a Satoshi Kon-like manner, letting the aggressive cheeriness of pop overwhelm and horrify us, letting plunky tunes and nasal-toned singers soothe us.

The film also has many allusions to fairy tales, particularly Hansel and Gretel. The girl Hanna is supposed to meet up with her father at the gingerbread Grimm house of some abandoned amusement park and I get the feeling that the CIA woman is supposed to be some kind of combined Wicked Witch/Stepmother figure. This theme is far in the background however and anyway I feel it's more a tacit acknowledgement that the premise is kind of played. The exact job title of the CIA woman is never clear, but it doesn't really matter: she's the evil Queen. The father's role is similarly opaque but what does that matter? He's the kindly woodcutter. What more do we need to know?

The film is fairly soothing and sweet. It's full of stylistic excesses which I quite like. There's an early sequence where Hanna escapes from a cement compound where the camera whirls around her as the screen is filled with strobing emergency lights. It's a fairly abstract, almost music-video-like sequence, telling its story with shorthand and cliches. Again, the fairy tale symbolism I believe is more of an apology than anything. The lack of grounding keeps the story feeling archetypal and ephemeral. I liked the stylish vapidity of it. It's not dumb or overly violent, just kind of sweet and airy. A surprising result considering its premise and ad campaign.