Hanna (2011)

HANNA  (2011)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Joe Wright
    Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett,
    Olivia Williams, Tom Hollander, Jason Flemyng
This is like a variation on "The Bourne Identity", with a teenaged girl in the Matt Damon role. The main difference, besides the age and gender of the protagonist, is that Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) isn't an amnesiac trying to piece together who she used to be. She's just your average kid growing up in complete isolation in northern Finland with a father (Eric Bana) who's teaching her how to kill people. When she's finally let out into the wider world (she literally flips a switch to make this happen), she's quickly captured and whisked off to a heavily fortified holding facility in what turns out to be Morocco. She escapes (of course) and starts to make her way toward Berlin, where she's supposed to meet the old man at Jakob Grimm's house (see, this is a fairy tale), while the Wicked Witch (a snarling Cate Blanchett) and her evil henchmen try to hunt her down. It's no more believable than the Bourne movies , maybe a little less, but it's got most of what makes an action thriller like this work: exotic locations, a director who knows how to keep the chase moving, and a lead actor who commands the screen. There aren't many 16-year-olds you could trust to carry a film like this. Ronan is one of them.