2011. Dir: Joe Wright. Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana, Tom Hollander and Olivia Williams. ●●●●○
We have an interesting parallel for my review with Thor last weekend. Like the Marvel adaptation Hanna feels almost like two films tied together, the first a look at the almost superheroic powers of our heroine Saoirse Ronan, the other a gentle fish out of water comedy as Hanna mixes with "normal" people - a hippy family floating around Morocco. Where this movie outperforms the former is the general sense of menace, the stakes here are real, people - the innocent as well as the culpable - will get hurt just for interacting with the girl.
The story opens with Hanna living with her father, Eric Bana, in a woodcutters cottage close to the Arctic circle. He's educating her in every skill she'll need to know; a selection of languages, how to gut a caribou, the theory of music and how to break a man's neck. Understandable it's not a normal child-raising but then Hanna is not an ordinary child. Able to beat her father in combat you can see the strength and agility in every move she makes. We learn little about her at this point, but pay attention as every point that's made will be important later in the plot. From her words to the deer to the Grimm's fairy tales book she reads.
Indeed it's that link to Grimm that completely overwhelms the basic story. This is a modern fairy tale, one that takes our heroine from her humble beginnings through a journey of self-discovery where she must confront an evil step-mother (semi-renegade CIA agent Cate Blanchett) and face some cold truths about her own origins.
The closest to reality this film has is the foster like family, led by Olivia Williams and Jason Flemyng as a bickering and fascinating couple taking their children across Morocco and Southern Europe and reacting to the introduction and consequences of meeting the precocious protagonist. In this middle section Hanna begins to emotionally connect to her new family, experiencing a sense of familial attachment for the first time. This family are built on love not on a desperate need to avenge history.
In the meantime Blanchett recruits her wolves. A peroxide wigged Tom Hollander camply preening around his sex shops and neo-nazi thugs oozing menace like a predator in tennis shorts.
All the performances work in context of the movie, the grounded work by Williams and Flemyng nicely counterpointing the overacting of Hollander and Blanchett who totally owns the role, completely unafraid of working the stereotypes. The revelatory performance though is from Saoirse Ronan, with her clear eyes and virtually translucent skin she perfectly portrays the innocence and tenacity of the character, facing the collapse of her world and fighting her way through to the other side. It's hard to imagine this is the same girl who deservedly earned her first oscar nomination as the meddlesome sister in Joe Wright's Atonement.
Wright has proved himself a versatile and superb director with a picture that would at first glance appear to be completely outside of his comfort zone. Capable of creating tension in quiet scenes and filming some of the most well choreographed action scenes I've seen for a while this makes the prospect of Wright moving back into costume dramas for Anna Karenina seem just a little disappointing.
The film isn't perfect, there are some odd inconsistencies in Hanna's understanding and reaction to technology (partly I expect as a plot cheat) and the Chemical Brothers soundtrack doesn't work all the way through (although kudos to the second film in a year to feature Greig's In the Hall of the Mountain King and in a way that feels more natural and plot-underlining than The Social Network 8 months ago).
This is the first must see I've seen from this years crop, highly recommended and if this doesn't make it to my top ten at the end of the year then I'll probably have to eat my hat.
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Hanna
Friday, 6 May 2011
Did she turn out as you hoped? (Out this week - 06/05/11)
After last weeks explosive start to the blockbuster season we're now taking a less studio-based version with art-house versions of action movies likely to dominate the box office, and some exciting animated and foreign language selections. It's a bit of an interesting time for Christopher Plummer fans too, but the film of the week is the thriller/fairy tale hybrid Hanna
Hanna
Joe Wright, director of high profile British costume dramas such as Atonement and Pride and Prejudice at first glance appears to be slumming it with this action thriller, however closer inspection reveals the style and substance he's brought to the film has made this project utterly unique.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●○○○○
My Dog Tulip
Low-key animation based on J.R. Ackerley's autobiography about his friendship with a German Shepherd. Christopher Plummer, in his first role this week, is the central lead. Sadly this also has Lynn Redgrave's final performance.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Outside the Law
Rachid Bouchareb's second movie looking at the relationship between France and Algeria, the countries of his birth and of his heritage, however unlike Days of Glory this painful reminder of the Algerian Independence movement, and the ultra thin line between freedom fighters and terrorism, has stirred up painful memories of the period.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Water for Elephants
The second real test for proving if Robert Pattison can pull in an audience outside the Twilight franchise, although it won't take much to surpass his Remember Me. Reese Witherspoon plays the girl he falls in love with, Christoph Waltz her husband and Hal Holbrook looks back as an older version of the worst circus tragedy of all time. Expect a two hanky movie.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
13 Assassins
Takashi Miike, known for his more extreme revenge movies, takes a look at feudal Japan in this based on fact action adventure. The titular assassins volunteer together to defeat a sadistic lord in a virtual suicide mission (with over 30 minutes of continuous battle choreography in the final set piece).
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Engeyum Kadhal
Surprisingly delayed Tamil movie (first released in October 2010), possibly because it portrays a love story where the woman is in control and chasing her loved one.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Forget me Not
British independent love story set over 24 hours in the beauty and excitement of London's capital, the trailer recalls the lyricism and aimlessness of Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
One Hundred Mornings
The most depressing plot synopsis this week comes from Ireland. Two couples hide in a isolated lakeside whilst society falls apart. The micro situation will undoubtedly reflect the micro.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Priest
Adapted from a graphic novel, from the same director-star collaborators Scott Charles Stewart and Paul Bettany, as last years apocalyptic Legion. Not expected to be any good. Brad Dourif and Christopher Plummer - yes this is the lesser of the options - take he money and run in supporting roles.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Something Borrowed
This looks so much like any other Kate Hudson rom-com that I honestly thought it had come out before. Ginnifer Goodwin is the ostensible lead, falling for her best friends (Hudson) fiance. Apparently not as bad as it might seem.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Tuesday Trailers - Hanna
Can you believe it's April already? And the good news here we are on the first tuesday in April and I'm showing the first trailer for May releases - back on schedule. This won't last - as I type this there's nothing I'm looking frward to in June so it's going to come to a crashing halt soon. In the meantime I'm psyched for Jow Wright's first foray into genre cinema with Saoirse Ronan as a mean killing machine out to knock off Cate Blanchett who shafter her father Eric Bana. I suspect there're more twists to be uncovered - and I don't mean Tom Hollander's ghastly wig.
Hanna is released on 06 May 2011.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
20 for 2011: 14 - Hanna
Purely popcorn entertainment at 14 with Joe Wright's Hanna.
I'm afraid you can't persuade me that Joe Wright is trying for anything other than bums on seats with his latest movie, especially after the iffy box office performance of The Soloist. Saoirse Ronan stars as the 14 year old killing machine brought up by her spy father Eric Bana purely to kill Cate Blanchett (at least that's how it ooks in the trailer). In many ways Hanna may be a slightly more realistic version of Hit Girl from Kick-Ass, although I expect there's still plenty of suspension of disbelief to be done.
Most of the plot may be obvious from watching the recent trailer but that won't stop us from watching many of the big blockbusters, so why should it stop you for this fight fest, and you never know Wright might turn out to be a surprisingly efficient action director.
Monday, 12 April 2010
Saoirse Ronan
Happy Birthday to
Saoirse Ronan
16 today
Saoirse (which I always think I'm spelling incorrectly) has had a fantastic start to her career. Working with high quality directors as diverse as Gillian Armstrong, Joe Wright and Peter Jackson and picking up her first Oscar nod for the complex and undertstaed performance as young Briony Tallis in Atonement. Later this year she'll be in the hotly anticipated The Way Back and she's currently filming the assassin thriller Hanna. Which means there are at least two good reasons to keep an eye on her career.
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Film News (13/02/09)
You just can't move without finding exciting news stories this week, overall there have been 13 different press releases that have struck me as projects to look out for. That's pretty much a record for me and as a result this weeks post will be scattershot, focusless and messy. Hang on that's every Saturday news post only even worse. And on to it...
Contagion
I think we all know that I am a huge fan of Steven Soderbergh. Frankly I think he's a genius, with an enormous output and a clever way of balancing high-profile marquee productions with more intimate experimental work. This week it was announced he's working on Contagion, an international deadly virus thriller. It's not the sort of thing that has been tried on such a massive scale before (most virus plots focus on small communities such as Outbreak). It's definitely going to be one of his bigger pictures with Matt Damon, Jude Law and Kate Winslet all circling roles.
Here's a flu virus in action - Steven Soderbergh not pictured.
Read on for Penelope, Rachel and Cate casting news, 70's comedies, US Presidents, metaphoric violence, original musicals, Russian spys and social satires!
Dream House
Our first major casting story is the addition of Rachel Weisz to the it's-not-a-remake-but-sounds-exactly-the-same-as-Cold-Creek-Manor Dream House. She will be married to Daniel Craig, which in itself is quite a dreamy proposition.
Hanna
Also signing on to a new project is Cate Blanchett, who has taken an unnamed role in Joe Wright's child trained to kill flick. This shouldn't be a big surprise as there's a big hole in her schedule where Wright postponed his Lady Mountbatten/Nehru picture for Hanna in the first place.
Laverne and Shirley/New Years Eve
There seems to be some confusion about what's next on Garry Marshall's slate. New Line, sensing box office gold with this weekends Valentine's Day have already started the ball rolling on a sequel - that is using the same concept of a star studded selection of relationships all intersecting on New Years Day. Names in the hat for who'll be in that one.
In the meantime Garry's been joking(?) on the red carpets that's he's planning a big screen adaptation of "Laverne and Shirley" - the long running spin-off from "Happy Days". I'll confess I don't know the series so I can't say whether it's a good or bad thing.
Personally I'm planning on seeing Marshall's latest magnum opus this afternnon so I'll get back to you on whether I think he should be allowed behind a camera again.
Untitled LBJ Biopic
From the austin360.com website (I think it's just a local arts/tourism site) comes the news that Robert Benton is prepping for a biopic about 36th US President Lyndon B. Johnson. All we know from the story, which can be found here, is that filming will likely take place elsewhere in order to receive more favourable tax cuts. It seems that would be bad news for the Texan economy. HBO are producing so this may or may not get a theatrical release, but either way the story of LBJ is probably ripe for the telling.
Little War of Our Own
Beacon pictures have picked up Dan (The Hurricane, Murder in the First) Gordon's script about a small town drifting towards violence during the second world war, effectively mirroring the international political scene at the time. It will up to the Sheriff to keep the peace before it's too late. This could be a modern western, or just pure allegory, either way it may just work.
Melancholia/Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Penelope Cruz has hit the headlines for signing on to two widely diverse projects. The first is Lars von Trier's catastrodrama Melancholia, and the second will be seeing her square off to Johnny Depp in the next Pirates installment. Both projects, which I'll be honest I was probably going to see anyway, have just got a lot more interesting.
Robocop
The remake of the seminal 80's action thriller is not yet dead in the water. In spite of rumours that Darren Aronofsky was against shooting in 3D and that MGM were equally reticent about the R rating the director favours, writer David Self is convinced the project is still go. There are certainly practicalities about the production that need to be finalised as there would be when dealing with a "large corporation" but there's nothing major in the way. Other than Aronofsky's Black Swan, which is due to be released later this year, of course.
Song is You
Based on the novel about Arthur Philips, the story revoles around a middle aged commercial director, going through a bad patch in his life (I'm mentally casting Paul Giamatti) who feels a connection with a club singing ingenue. A tenous romance then plays out with him guiding her career and her becoming his inspiration to reinvigorate his life. Sounds dreadful - only the plan is to make a musical about it. I hope thet means original songs. There are so few musicals writeen directly for screen that I hope they're good when they do try.
The Terminal Spy
Do you remember when there were multiple Alexander Litveninko project hangiong around Hollywood, with Johnny Depp being very vocal about his wish to play the former KGB spy? Well finally one of these is beginning to get moving with news that the authoritive Alan S. Cowell's investigative best-seller is being developed. He's the former chief of the London Bureau of the New York Times so it'll be well researched and at the same time won't hesitate from pointing the finger where it needs to be pointed. Whther any adaptation will be able to fit in the complexities of the case, or whether Depp will be involved in this one remains to be seen.
Turn of the Century
Finally I'm turing to on of the most promising directors of the 1970's, but equally one who never really made good on that original promise: Peter Bogdanovich. It's been 9 years since his underrated Cat's Meow so we're certainly due this Kurt Anderson adaptation. The novel has been favourably compared to the yuppie classic "Bonfire of the Vanities", a social satire which should fit Bogdanovich's style. Let's hope it does - I want to see a re-emergence of the once feted auteur.
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Film News (09/01/2010)
It's been an incredibly busy week, with rumour and counter-rumour flowing about many of the studio tent-poles of this year and next, as well as some delicious indie features. I won't bore you with US release date changes - but May 2011 was all a flurry on Wednesday - but we've still got loads to get through.
Bond 23
At the beginning of the week the news was not good - the sale of MGM meant that some high profile projects, such as the Bond franchise, were on hold until completion. Of course MGM denied it and surprisingly a day later the story leaked that Sam Mendes (Away we Go, Road to Perdition) was in negotiations to direct the next episode.
There's been no official confirmation yet, but equally none of the major players have denied it. It's an odd choice for both parties, especially coming after the last off-the-wall director choice (Marc Forster) made the underwhelming Quantom of Solace. Saying that we know that Mendes can build tension in a scene, and he's probably got enough clout to force the film to delay if he's not liking the script.
Oh, and I'm using this post as an excuse to remind everyone what Daniel Craig looks like in his Casino Royale swimming trunks... Here you go:
Read on for child killers, nuclear bombs and Soderbergh doubles.
Hanna
Killer teenage girls have been dominating the press this week with the release of the Kick Ass trailer and the casting of Saoirse Ronan in Hanna, reuniting her with her Atonement director Joe Wright. It's a story about a girl bred as pat of a secret CIA assassin experiment, sounds half Bourne, half Leon. Maybe half good.
Ron Howard/Vince Vaughn collaboration
Vaughn, who is probably desperate for a hit, has pitched a comedy about infidelity to his mate Ron Howard, probably aware that Ron says yes to everything. The concept is simple, and instantly recognisable, revolving around a guy who finds his best mates girls has been cheating but can't tell his friend. It probably sounds more like a soap opera twist than a mvie, but if it's handled correctly there could be the basis for a likeable farce of co-incidences.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Even though variety reported that Chris Robots Wedge was directing this childrens fantasy back in May the rumours of Martin Scorsese holding the megaphone have not died down. I guess Marty has nothing to prove at this stage of his career so there is no longer a need to make biopics or gangster dramas - see his pulpy Shutter Island for proof.
Invention concerns a small boy living in the rafters of a Paris train station and fixing the clocks, as well as a small curious device left to him by his father. I don't know what that device does so I guess that's the invention of the title.
Knockout
Steven Soderbergh's martial arts movie has been gaining some fantastic actors to support MMA fighter and cinema newcomer Gina Carano, including Ewan MacGregor, Michael Douglas, Dennis Quaid and Michael Fassbender. It's that sort of delightful mix of ators that gets so interested in Soderbergh's work, even the likely popcorn efforts such as this female Bourne rip-off. (Carano plays a Black Ops soldier who's been cut off by shadowy governement figures - yawn!)
Talking about Steven Soderbergh it's emerged in the Sydney Herald that whilst he was over in Australia directing for the stage he may have shot a quickie using the same, unknown cast. Nothing official or plot-based yet, but I'm thnking that if this is the same sort of quality as The Girlfriend Experience then we could be in for another great year of Soderbergh output.
Last Train to Hiroshima
We were all saddened to hear of the death of Tsutomo Yamaguchi, the last survivor of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs, this monday. It's easy to forget just how awful and indiscriminate a nuclear device is and only by talking to the survivors can we understand why we must never let them be used again.
Curiously, following his death, it emerged that James Cameron had visited him to talk about his experiences in December. It look likely that Cameron was researching in order to adapt The Last Train to Hiroshima, the heavyweight non-fiction account of the afteraffects of the blasts, based on interviews with survivors. Whether Cameron has ideas of making a documentary or a fiction piece based on the transcripts remains to be seen, but we should support whatever his efforts are as this is a shameful chapter in 20th century history that has yet to be fully explored in film.
Thor
Adriana Barazza has become the latest cast member to sign onto the Norse epic due to start filming next week, as a yet to be disclosed human character. It's good to hear there will be some human characters among all the gods, it will make the drama of the story a little more interesting. Oh, and going full circle Thor is one of the films shifting it's release date in response to the Spider-man delay rumours. 
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Film News (12/12/09)
One of the great pluses of taking time off from writing here (or actually working, however you want to call it) is that I can spend the best part of a day trawling through the news items from the last 4 weeks. There have been loads of minor stories and a few major talking points have disappeared from the schedules - I'm looking at you Mr. Spielberg - but there are 5 key films that has caused me to comically raise my eyebrows.
The Master
Paul Thomas Anderson will be following his monumental There will be Blood with another tale of a meglamaniacal businessman. This time oil will be replaced with the opium for the masses - religion. Sketchy details of a plot centred around the formation of a religious cult as it tips from belief system into major religion, as led by regular Anderson collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman, and as witnessed through a yet to be cast acolyte.
I can't think of a reason why this won't be incredible.
Hanna
Joe Wright (Atonement) has been circling a number of projects in recent months, notably I'm looking forward to Indian Summer, about the end of the Raj, and he was linked to the My Fair Lady remake for a few minutes. Well, in mid November he was also linked to this action thriller about a teenage hit girl, apparently trained from an early age to be the perfect weapon for the CIA. OK, it sounds like nonsense but if it's half Bourne and half Leon then it should be worth the entry fee.
Miss: Better Living Through Crime
The French graphic novel has been optioned with John Ridley attached to complete the adaptation. A white hooker and black pimp join forces to commit a crime spree in New York at the turn of the 20th Century. What's not to love. And that's a great cover there on the left.
Moneyball
Brad Pitt's baseball/computer modelling picture has not been abandoned for good, and now has Bennett Miller (Capote) replacing Steven Soderbergh in the directors chair. Given the studio pulled production over the way the script may have led to a fantastic budget expect rewrites announced soon.
Spider-Man 4
We all know that too many villains spoilled the broth in the last spidey outing, but that won't stop us salivating at every nemesis casting rumour that sparks up aroung the net. Latest I heard was John Malkovich on board as The Vulture and Anne Hathaway as another, unnamed, villianess. Both of them sound like top choices, Malkovich has proved his bad guy mettle in everything from Con Air to Portrait of a Lady, and a change of pace for Anne will be more than welcome.
Go get 'em tiger.
