HANNA -- (6)

So, when you Wiki E.T.A Hoffmann, at the very bottom of the page you will see "Assessment" and you will find the following statement:

Hoffmann's literature indicates the failings of many so-called artists to differentiate between the superficial and the authentic aspects of such Romantic ideals. The self-conscious effort to impress must, according to Hoffmann, be divorced from the self-aware effort to create.

And that, my friends, is the problem with HANNA in a nutshell.  Director Joe Wright has spent a lot of time and effort making a film which reflects all his favorite art films (he tells you here) and which might be saying something about being watched and CCTV in Europe (or reflects someone's fetish for eyeballs)  but because of all his frantic work went into showing you how groovy he is the movie itself is not very good.

And that's a shame because it's a fairly cool idea.  It's very beautiful.  It has lovely actors and interesting environments.  It even has neat music when your nose isn't being rubbed in it.  (I'm not sure every EDM artist has a movie soundtrack in them.  TRON is a good example of how one artist may not be able to capture all the moods in a single film.)  The problem is that all that pretty doesn't express much more than "Look how cool I am!"

What is far more interesting is the role of women in this film.  There are a LOT of women (6 is a lot for an action film.) (And, no SUCKER PUNCH doesn't count.  The women in that movie are actually men.  Or blow-up dolls which is the same thing....)  There are only six male characters, (well, besides the random red shirts who are there to die,) and all of them are totally bossed around by the women.  In fact, NO man in this film ever gainsays a woman.  All of the men are controlled by the women, and that includes the silly 16 year-old fashion princess who thinks of nothing but celebrity gossip. Hanna herself spends the whole film watching and studying and listening to women which makes sense if she never had any around.  The really good music bits were of women singing.  She seeks out her mother and grandmother.  She kisses a girl.  Was this intentional?  Totally.  But it was way less blatant than being forced to see the vein-y eyeball of a dead deer in super close focus in order to communicate... something.