Film is redeemed only through the skills of the lead actress
|
BORN in New York City to Irish parents, Saoirse Ronan was raised in Co. Carlow where she moved when she was three-years-old.
|
Reviewed by Sharon Greer
The recently released film Hanna: Adapt or Die, starring the brilliant young actress Saoirse Ronan, has very little going for it, with the exception of this talented young woman.
Relying heavily on special effects and editing, the film is loaded with extreme, non-stop violence that literally had me rolling my eyes by the end – it bored me that much.
Unfortunately, so many films of the last few years rely too much on technology and not enough on a good story line.
English filmmaker, Joe Wright, has veered far off course from his previous film, Atonement which was a fascinating study on human behaviour. It also starred the then 13-year-old Ronan who played the part of betrayer exceptionally well for such a young girl.
In Hanna she is trained by her father from infancy to become an assassin. And in an ironic twist, the character of Hanna has not come into contact with modern technology.
Raised in the wilderness of Finland, it’s amazing how many people she can dispose of in one fell swoop. Her mission is to destroy a corrupt CIA agent (Cate Blanchett) who herself is committed to killing Hanna’s father (Eric Bana).
At the age of 16, Hanna is willingly captured and taken to a safe house in Morocco. In some of the most ridiculous scenes I have ever witnessed in a film, she manages to escape through an elaborate compound (remember she was raised in the wilderness), cross the desert, befriend an English family on holidays, elude four killers hot on her trail, and make it to Berlin where she is supposed to meet up with her father.
She discovers he is not her biological father but was himself a CIA agent at one time who had recruited women from abortion clinics so the CIA could alter their children’s DNA enhancing their strength while suppressing emotions like fear and empathy to create an army of ‘super’ soldiers.
Eventually the project was deemed a failure by the higher ups in the CIA and all the women and their genetically modified children were eliminated except for Hanna....you get the picture.
Thankfully, with Saoirse’s solid acting skills, I actually managed to stay to the end of the film. This is an actress to keep an eye on.
She was born in New York City to Irish parents and raised in County Carlow, Ireland where she moved when she was three-years-old. She currently resides in Ireland. |
