The plot is preposterous, but Joe Wright, the director, gives the movie enough audacious drive and style for the story to skim over the holes in the narrative logic.

Even though there are misogynistic undercurrents to the fatal gunshot wound Hanna delivers... Weigler will never die because she lives on in Hanna, and her story will be retold and revised just like the fables women and girls pass on to one another.

The thing with Joe Wright's beautifully shot movie is that it never really feels true.

The breakout performance by Saoirse Ronan is elevated to impressive heights with the help of scrappy action sequences and a pulsating score.