“A Real Spy Kid”
In 2007, 13-year old Saoirse Ronan received an Oscar nomination for her role in “Atonement”. She joined an impressive list of other child actresses who have been recognized by the Academy such as Jodie Foster, Tatum O’Neal and Abigail Breslin. Ronan’s nomination had me scratching my head. I didn’t get it. But after seeing her as the lead in Joe Wright’s new assassin thriller “Hanna”, I now think Ronan’s career trajectory will be more Jodie than Tatum.
In this astonishing new film, Ronan plays a 16-year old world-class-trained assassin named Hanna. Raised by her father, an ex-CIA assassin in exile played by Eric Bana, Hanna has never seen the outside world. She lives in the snowy woods in what looks like a cozy gingerbread cottage where her father has been relentlessly training her her whole life.
When Hanna feels confident and ready to face her destiny, her father tells her to flip a switch on a device that will alert the CIA to their whereabouts. That signal is then picked up by CIA hardass Cate Blanchett who wants to hunt down and kill Bana. The international chase-to-the-death is on from the Arctic Circle to Germany.