Hannah Review: Charlotte Rampling Drama Runs Gamut From Cold to Subzero

Its not easy to watch the slow deterioration of a good person, especially a woman as intelligent and complex as Hannah (Charlotte Rampling). Her husband (Andr Wilms) has been carted off to prison in their native Belgium for reasons unknown. But Hannah carries on, trying to live life as she knows it. Then life starts to squeeze her out.

At least, thats the premise of this slow, deliberate film, directed and co-written by Andrea Pallaoro, following a striking 2013 debut with Medeas. He refuses to coddle audiences or fill in the spaces where the narrative should be, and the camera studies Hannah as she goes through the motions of her daily routine from brushing her hair to rubbing in skin lotion. But whats roiling inside this woman is something we must discern by simply watching Rampling, an actress unparalleled at revealing the inner life of a character through looks, gestures and words left unsaid.

Having received her first Oscar nomination only three years ago (shame on the Academy) for Andrew Haighs 45 Years, Rampling, 72, nonetheless boasts an enviable career. She caused a sensation with provocative early roles in The Night Porter, The Damned, Stardust Memories, and The Verdict, then deepened her talents in this century with two superb Franois Ozon films:Under the Sand and Swimming Pool. There is some Hollywood junk on her resum, such as the current Jennifer Lawrence claptrap Red Sparrow, but this legendary actor is always worth watching.

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Hannah,
which won Rampling the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival, is more proof of her powers. The film works
largely on inference as we watch Hannah become estranged from her neighbors,
her family and even her dog. Canadian cinematographer Chayse Irvin, who worked
on Beyoncs Lemonade video, lets flashes of color cut through the gloom. Its a theme reflected in the film as well when
Hannah takes acting classes, not just to relieve boredom but to allow her the chance to release hidden feelings through performance.

And indeed, its Ramplings
performance, in a film that otherwise operates in a forbidding chill, that
holds us in expectant suspension until Hannah explodes in a public place. Only then does Palllaoro
drop hints about both Hannahs family and her husbands crime that begin to fill in
some of the blanks. But despite Ramplings magnificence, a blank becomes the
films driving metaphor and the reason why Hannah leaves you cold.