La critique de James Berardinelli (3)

The fairy tale motifs are at times obvious - it's impossible to miss the wolf's head at the climax - and they are littered throughout the movie. There are parallels to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It would be spoiler-ish to go into much detail, but Hanna is shaped by her father and sent into the world with no knowledge of who she is or what she was created to do. There's a scene in which she spies upon a family engaged in normal, happy activities that recalls a moment from the novel. The David Lynch/Clockwork Orange shadows fall most strikingly over the character of Isaacs (played by Tom Hollander), whose gleeful sadism is at times darkly comedic.

Saoirse Ronan, the gifted young actress who received an Oscar nomination for her work in Atonement, is brilliant as Hanna. The portrayal is mostly cold and icy, as befits someone shaped as a killer in a frigid wilderness, but there are instances when she thaws. On one occasion, she is bombarded by the "wonders" of modern technology (fluorescent lighting and a television) and the panic is evident. On another, she befriends a girl of about her age and has difficulty separating platonic feelings from romantic ones. Hanna could easily come across as an automaton; Ronan humanizes her.