Kick Ass With Class
Directed by Joe
Wright
Runtime: 111 min.
Joe Wright will
always be respected for his appearance on Sunday
Morning Shootout, when he looked at Peter Guber and Peter Bart’s sycophantic
audience and asked, “Why are they applauding the money?” Wright also puts
ethical questions at the core of Hanna,
a slick, dazzling action flick about a 16-year-old girl (Saoirse Ronan) trained
as an assassin to get back at the ruthless CIA operatives who destroyed her
family background.
Imminently
watchable, Hanna suggests a thinking-person’s
Kick-Ass. Ronan’s lethal innocence
conveys a damaged, emotionally estranged soul, longing to believe in something
(“What does music feel like?” she asks). Wright should probably know better
than this junk—we all know better than this junk—but his artsy ambitions are
entertaining to a point. Not when Cate Blanchett does her drag queen act as a
CIA goon, but when Hanna amazes a progressive British family and when Wright’s
sinuous Steadicam stalks her father (Eric Bana) to an underground parking
structure in Germany for a splendidly executed six-on-one battle royale. Bana
adds virile regret to the gentleness he showed in Munich. This uniquely cinematic, physical performance accomplishes
the political rectitude missing from Olivier Assayas’ Carlos. Joe Wright doesn’t settle for audiences simply applauding
mayhem.
