HANNA.

Yet another one of my most anticipated of the year I can check off from my list. But this time I got to go in with high expectations considering it has been getting pretty good reviews all around. But will mine add to it? Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) was raised in the woods by her father Erik (Eric Bana) to become a skilled assassin. Her mission? To take out a woman named Marissa Weigler (Cate Blanchett) before meeting back up with her father. Unfortunately, things aren't that simple.

I really wanted to love this movie. I really wanted to. I just... well, let's start with the positives. The cinematography and overall visual style is pretty excellent, but I wouldn't expect any different from the director of Atonement--another flawed film, but it looked quite nice. Also, the story was a fascinating concept, and I don't just mean the girl assassin trained in the woods bit. The reasoning behind everything is rather excellent, and--without spoiling anything--I'll just say it tries to ground something more fantastic into reality, and it does it pretty well.

Then there's the acting. Saoirse Ronan totally rocks it as Hanna. She's one of those actresses where, even if the rest of the film turns out to be rubbish, she's always a great watch. And while I don't think this movie was rubbish, she was certainly the best part of it. Eric Bana isn't in the movie too much after the beginning--he shows up here and there and comes back in with more purpose near the end--but he's good with what he does. And of course Cate Blanchett pulls off an amazing Tilda Swinton in this movie, though I'm not sure if that was the purpose. And the hitman guy bugged me for some reason--I think it was the actor, who probably could have been played better by Peter Stormare.

The first problem, however, is that the characters outside of Hanna are unexplored and dull. The most interesting characters after Hanna are actually the most normal--the family that Hanna joins up with after a while. There are hints that there could be trouble in paradise, but those are never really explored. And there's some fun comic relief involved. But Bana and Blanchett are just kinda... there.

So what we're given is nearly 2 hours focusing on the world through the eyes of this girl. That could be done really well... if the movie could make up its mind what it wants to do. Half the time it's trying to be an action thriller. The other half of the time, it wants to be this kinda-drama about a girl raised away from society who has to become more acquainted with the modern world and its peoples. Unfortunately, the two don't mesh well together. At times, the movie tries to force the thriller aspect by playing suspenseful music where there doesn't need to be. For the drama scenes, it'll start having her reactions to things... but then just drop it and won't explore further. So yeah, a big problem I found was that it was trying to be two different films and couldn't find a way to merge them better. Also, the fairy tale symbolism stuff could have been tightened up a bit.

Because of all of this, there were quite a few parts where the film seemed to drag. I was actually bored at times. Luckily, when it actually did these things right, it did them very well. The action sequences are a lot of fun and are well choreographed. The more dramedy-type things, when actually followed through with, were very good. So it just seemed to me that the script maybe needed another draft or two to fix a few things.

On the whole, I was entertained, but I thought it could have been better. It tried to do too many things, but there wasn't enough story or enough interesting situations to allow its run-time, leaving most of the film up to being carried by its characters--which, outside Hanna, weren't really strong enough to do so. Thankfully the production value was excellent. The movie was great to look at. The script had some really good moments. This movie had a lot of potential, and sometimes that potential comes through. But overall... it was just kinda dull.


Stop Saying OK! OK.

(P.S. I was actually gonna give it one higher originally. But by the time I got to the end of writing this review, I just felt so 'blah' about it. Maybe on a repeat viewing on DVD my opinion might go up a little. Hopefully. I still, at this point, really want to like this movie more. I could probably bump it up for its cinematic eye alone, but... I won't.)

Top 5 Up-And-Coming Young Actresses.

I've had this post idea for a while, and I think I finally have enough thoughts to get it down.

In this day and age, you have a lot of the mediocre in the younger world of actresses (Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, etc... can you see the pattern there?). But there is also a lot of amazing talent out there as well. Some names are bigger than others, but you also have your non-household names.

The five actresses I detail in this post are, for the most part, relatively young. You might have only seen one or two of their films. You might have seen more and just not realized it. But in their repertoire, they expose themselves as great up-and-comers. For each actress, I'll state their current age (even if their birthday is next month, I'll state what it is right now); the number of movies they've been in (including those in post-production, but not including TV work); where you might recognize them; and further details/my thoughts. So without further ado, I will now detail my top 5 favorite up-and-coming young actresses.

Top 5 Up-And-Coming Young Actresses

5. AnnaSophia Robb
Current Age: 16
# of Movies: 11
Probably Recognized From: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bridge to Terabithia
Details: She's probably the oldest on my list. AnnaSophia Robb has a tendency to be in not-so-good movies, with I believe Bridge to Terabithia being a prime exception. But even in bad movies, she's always one of the biggest highlights. Most notably, she probably did the best job in the abysmally disappointing film Jumper, playing a younger version of Rachel Bilson. I also personally believe she should have played Annabeth in the movie adaptation of Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief, as every description of that character in the book pointed to AnnaSophia.

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4. Saoirse Ronan
Current Age: 16
# of Movies: 8
Probably Recognized From: Atonement, The Lovely Bones, City of Ember
Details: She's probably (arguably) the biggest name on my list (at least critically). Atonement, as a film, left me conflicted, but there were two things I loved about it: the music and Saoirse Ronan. I knew from the second the film ended that this girl was going to be something special. Hers was always my favorite portrayal of that character. I don't remember much about City of Ember, meaning it left me pretty underwhelmed. But I do remember I enjoyed her character more than anything else in the movie. She's an excellent young actress, proving she can do both adult drama and children's fantasy.

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3. Jodelle Ferland
Current Age: 15
# of Movies: 16
Probably Recognized From: Silent Hill
Details: Jodelle Ferland is kinda like my female Ben Foster. Not really a household name (though Ben is getting there), but I find myself excited when I realize she's in a movie. Strangely, she's in quite a bit of horror. I guess she does the creepy little girl thing well, regardless of her doing the 'creepy little girl' or not. A big thing she brings with her, though, is innocence. She has an amazing innocent and likable quality to her (which I suppose is why they chose her for the mostly pointless character of Bree in the recent Eclipse). She's quite excellent in Silent Hill. But she's also done a crazy amount of TV. For instance, she was in a mini-series from a while back called Kingdom Hospital. She was also in the pilot episode of the criminally underrated and prematurely canceled Dead Like Me (talk about a tear-jerker episode). But I can totally see this girl hopping from the horror-train to more dramatic roles. There's no doubt in my mind she'll end up with more recognition in the future. It might take a while, but it'll happen.

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2. Elle Fanning
Current Age: 12
# of Movies: 19
Probably Recognized From: Phoebe in Wonderland, Benjamin Button
Details: Simultaneously the youngest on my list and owner of the largest number of movies (though if you count television, Ms. Ferland and the following choice might rival her). Of course I know her as the younger sister of Dakota. But part of me wonders if Elle is even better than her sister. She didn't really show up on my radar as somebody to watch until I somewhat recently saw Phoebe in Wonderland. That is an amazing film, and her acting in it is phenomenal. Usually, her role is a young sibling or a younger version of a main character. But she's almost always not the focal point of the film (if a younger version, for instance, that version might not be shown for long). Though after her starring role in Phoebe, I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for this one.

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1. Chloe Moretz
Current Age: 13
# of Movies: 17
Probably Recognized From: Kick-Ass, Let Me In (trailers, at this point)
Details: No surprise here. Chloe, of course, hit it big as Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass. But she already had quite a resume under her belt before that point. And it's strange looking at it, as it makes me go "She was in that?" For instance, I don't remember her in (500) Days of Summer, nor do I remember her in the Amityville Horror remake from a few years back. But she makes my number 1 spot because she's basically jumped up in popularity quite a bit since her Hit-Girl performance, and I think I can safely assume she's gonna become a 'go-to' child actress for a lot of things here soon.

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Runner-Up: Isabelle Fuhrman
Current Age: 13
# of Movies: 5
Probably Recognized From: Orphan
Detail: Have you seen Orphan? I don't blame you if you haven't. I had an aversion to it myself, despite my love of horror (crappy or otherwise). It's not the best horror film in the world, but holy crap is Isabelle Fuhrman's perfomance great. Kind of a spoiler here... but she was essentially an 11-year-old American girl playing a 30-something-year-old European woman pretending to be a 9-year-old Russian girl. And she pulls it off. It's really an outstanding performance on this little girl's part, and I think most would agree--whether you liked the movie or not.


(P.S. Keep an eye out for a potential Top 5 Up-And-Coming Young Actors.)

ATONEMENT.

Finally came here, finally saw it, so here goes: My feelings on Atonement are quite mixed, really. But before I get into that, here’s the rundown: Robbie (James McAvoy) and Cecilia (Keira Knightley) are in love. Cecilia’s little sister Briony (Saoirse Ronan), in a fit of (supposed) jealousy and rage, accuses Robbie of a major crime he didn’t actually commit. This lie disrupts everybody’s lives, which are sent into disarray, making Briony grow up trying to be forgiven for what she did.

It’s really that simple. I also say supposed jealousy, because she at one point admits to having had a crush on Robbie, so I just figured that had something to do with it. But anyway, to the review. I enjoyed the first act (pre-war) of the movie the most. Saoirse Ronan was utterly engaging (those eyes were just captivating). Just everything that occurred in that first act made for some good drama and entertainment. The second act (war and 18-year-old Briony) started to lose me. It wasn’t bad; it just didn’t keep me nearly as entertained as the first act. The quite short third act (future Briony) was just bizarre, taking a big turn with a not-so-surprising reveal (I was already raising my eyebrow to the fact it was 3 weeks in the past during act two and Robbie was home from the war).

I really loved the rewinding and re-showing of scenes from different perspectives, but after the first act, that really slowed to a halt. Yet another reason I liked the first act the most.

As far as acting is concerned, Saoirse Ronan did amazingly well. Keira Knightley was okay, as was James McAvoy. However, I really wasn’t feeling the romance part of the story, which is really bad considering the movie is centered around their romance. I never cared if Robbie and Cecilia would ever get back with each other, nor did I really care if they would end up with each other in the first place. I felt almost no chemistry between them. Let me put it this way, I felt about 20x more chemistry between Dane Cook and Jessica Alba in Good Luck Chuck than I felt between these two. As for the character of Briony, Saoirse’s version was the best version. I didn’t give a hoot about the 18-year-old version, or really even the old version at the end. Neither were even close to being as captivating or watchable.

However, there were some excellent, excellent things about this movie. For starters, the music was amazing. I loved how, at least half the time, the props or noises from the sets ended up adding to the music (such as opening a door, lighting a cigarette lighter, or banging on the police car). Then, of course, the typewriter was the best. But on top of the music, the movie was visually stunning, as well, especially in the first act. However, after the first act ends, the movie seems to be more selective where it wants to be pretty or artsy. The most notable parts from the war sequence were walking down the grass and seeing the planes fly by in the stream next to them, and, obviously, the nearly five minute continuous shot on the beach. The last real cool shot of the movie was seeing 18-year-old Briony on what I’m assuming to be a train, and the lights flickering on her face.

Personally, I believe the music and the visuals make up for some of the issues, much like how the visuals of The Assassination of Jesse James made it a better movie for all its flaws. It’s a difficult movie to score, honestly, but I suppose I have to give it something…

A Keanu 'Whoa'

(P.S. Is a woman really going to keep the exact same haircut for her entire life? Seriously now...)