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Hanna, Arthur, Soul Surfer, Winter in Wartime and two small Canadian films, The Bend and The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom

Saoirse Ronan becomes a teenage action star in Hanna, the international thriller dreamed up here in Vancouver.


Another week with many choices, including both real and fantastic problems of teenagers, a not so happy drunk and two films with strong B.C. connections.

Here's the list:

Hanna  4 stars
Arthur   2
Soul Surfer   3
Wrecked    3 1/2
Winter in Wartime   3 1/2
The Bend  2 1/2
The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom  3
Your Highness    --

HANNA: This is a terrific international thriller from Europe and … Vancouver. Yes, this ambitious action and pursuit spree which includes moose hunting in Finland, a desert trek in North Africa, a CIA black-site prison somewhere, a chase among rows of piled-high shipping containers and a showdown  in an abandoned amusement park in Berlin started out as a script for a class assignment at the Vancouver Film School. Seth Lochhead, currently working on a degree at Simon Fraser, wrote it six years ago. Joe Wright has turned it into a big-budget, fast-moving and intelligent film starring young Saoirse Ronan, who he directed to an Oscar nomination in Atonement.  She plays a teen who’s been sheltered by her ex-CIA father (Eric Bana) and trained in both self-defense and assassination. The day will come, she’s told, that she’ll have to kill another agent (Cate Blanchett) who is coming after her.

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