On HANNA

A captivating genre blend, BOURNE meets Elena Ferrante, anchored by three great performances by leads Creed-Miles, Kinnaman, and Enos, but nearly felled by that chronic condition of the binge-able, the muddled middle, when the components – thriller, action, bildungsroman –  split into a series of segmented “and thens” which, while compelling in their own right (the Sophie story esp.), never found their component rhythm and ground the narrative to a nigh-lull.

Note: while I recognize that this disjointed rhythm was intentional and representative of Hanna and Eric’s state of mind, it could have been more fluid: ideally, the disjointing would have been only in the characters and in their reactions to events around them – not in the writing and pace itself.  

Fortunately, like Hanna and Eric, the blend found its way back to itself in time for a blistering conclusion that delivered more than enough tears and promise to make me crave the just-announced second season. Recommended.