Hannah

I really liked this movie, however, WHY was her husband put in jail?

I know silly question, have to know...

A very subtle, evocative independent film, with an existential atmosphere recalling Ingmar Bergman's works.

It's a quiet, serene picture of beautifully composed scenes, creating an ambience of seclusion and isolation. We experience the lonely life of a woman who has been rejected by everyone in her life, except her only outlet, a theater group she is involved with.

Some, inexperienced with artistic films, may not appreciate its somber nature. And it's definitely not for those expecting a complete narrative. The film is one big question mark of what happened to her, left up to the viewer's interpretation.

Hannah is a homage to Charlotte Rampling, who should have received more nominations for this performance, and who I hope will receive an achievement award for her career.

Hannah (Charlotte Rampling) accompanies her husband who surrenders to be imprisoned. She befriends her neighbor's autistic child. She becomes more isolated as even own family shuns her.

This is a slow, quiet character study. It's strictly for the arthouse crowd. Honestly, I got to the hour mark and couldn't figure out if anything is happening on the screen. I decided to watch from the beginning again. This film is not one for expositions. There is nobody explaining anything. One follows Hannah around doing stuff. It needs to declare what is going on at the beginning so that the movie is even marginally interesting. Rampling is a master and that's mostly what's worthwhile on the screen. Otherwise, it's a plot quiz that demands one's attention and rarely gets mine.

Twenty minutes into the movie I realized that I didn't know where it was going and that it gave me not enough clues to be ever figured out. But I kept on watching Rampling. Enjoying every moment of it.

Is it too much to ask for a plot?

Despite an excellent central performance from Rampling this film is not easy and is not engaging. It is tedious.

The story and its telling recalls Antonioni, think of: Il Grido, il Deserto Rosso, L'Avventura and La Notte, with characters who barely intersect, let alone have any connection to each other, solitary, desperate, fearful, they stumble about the world, tiny and wretched. And that is exactly what 'Hannah' replicates.

Yet with Antonioni the films had a trajectory about a social and personal gulf which 'Hannah' doesn't', Hannah simply records the mundane as the mundane and even with a veteran in Rampling to give the merest levels of drama, it still falls short.

In a film the dramatic premise is necessary, such a narrative as 'Hannah' simulates are possible in prose, they work very well on the page, but in a film the internal represented as physical space is insufficient. It's only observation.

In some respects 'Hannah' is like a reality show, but whereas those shows tease the audience with sexual anticipation, Hannah ruthlessly records the anxiety of a lonely, miserable, woman.