I’m giving very serious thought… to eating your wife.
Hannibal (2001): 7 out of 10: “Hannibal,” released in 2001, is a psychological thriller and sequel to “The Silence of the Lambs.” The plot revolves around Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and a cannibalistic serial killer. Set ten years after his escape from custody, Lecter (portrayed by Anthony Hopkins) is living in Florence, Italy, under an assumed identity. Meanwhile, FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling (played by Julianne Moore) is under scrutiny after a botched drug raid. Mason Verger (Gary Oldman), a wealthy and disfigured victim of Lecter’s, seeks revenge by luring Lecter out of hiding. Starling becomes the bait in the deadly game between Lecter and Verger.
The Good
The Good: Julianne Moore is excellent in a thankless attempt to replace “The Silence of the Lambs” Jodi Foster, who wisely turned down the offer to reprise the role which won her the Oscar. (Jodi was not the only Oscar winner on Silence of the lambs to turn down the sequel both writer Ted Tally and Director Jonathan Demme said no. Demme noted “Tom Harris, as unpredictable as ever, took Clarice and Dr. Lecter’s relationship in a direction that just didn’t compute for me. And Clarice is drugged up, and she’s eating brains with him, and I just thought, ‘I can’t do this.’ (Put a pin in this one, because this will be a recurring theme below.)
Anthony Hopkins is effortless in his portrait of Hannibal Lecter. He really makes the cannibalistic serial killer so classy and appealing and yet still frightening. It is no wonder current presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks so highly of Mr. Lecter (“The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man,”)
Gary Oldman is unrecognizable as the rich victim Mason Verger. The makeup is doing the heavy lifting, but Oldman still nails the performance.
The cinematography and direction are also top-notch. The scenery in Florence, unsurprisingly, is also exquisite. Though some scenes such as the opening shootout in the fish market seem a bit staged and artificial. (Looked a little like the fish market from “State of Play” but without the giant inflatable crab which is a shame) The music is excellent and again the film is visually stunning.
The Bad
The Bad: If there is an acting miss, it is Ray Liotta as evil dude bro boss of Starling. Liotta seems simply miscast in the role. He seems lost in a film where everyone else nails their roles.
The Ugly
The Ugly: Okay, where to begin. I listed some people above who did not return for the sequel. There were others such as Scott Glenn not reprising his role as Starling’s mentor. All the people who said no had basically the same reason. They read the new novel. The book sequel to Silence of the Lambs came out in 1999 too much fanfare. The first printing of Hannibal sold 1.3 million copies. It was the second highest bestselling novel in 1999. It was also batshit crazy.
I mean, where does one even begin? “he presents her with her father’s exhumed skeleton” ?… “he and Starling eat Krendler’s prefrontal cortex before Lecter kills him.”? We are spoilt with choice. And that is just the ending. The entire book is… well, it does not hold back.
So what do you do with source material so divisive people are fleeing the project? Well, if you are director Ridley Scott and Schindler’s List writer Steven Zaillian, you rewrite large chunks of the story. The problem? They simply did not make the landing.
There are many issues with the story. Little of the plot makes sense. The plot may have been batshit crazy in the book, but to Thomas Harris’s credit, there was an internal logic to it. (As a note, I have read the book and found it enjoyable. Primarily because it seems to relish turning the crazy up to eleven repeatedly.)
For example, Mason Verger is completely nerfed in the movie. In the book he is a child rapist who drinks martinis flavored with their tears. In the movie when Lecter suggests to Verger’s servant he kill his master, it appears as if Hannibal Lecter has developed some sort of mind control super powers. While in the book, the servant is an adult who was one of Verger’s child victims years ago and is kept by Verger to help molest and torture other children. Character motivation, as they say in the screenwriting biz.
The whole lure Lecter to América to capture him plot also makes little sense. Without the love affair, there is little motivation for Lecter to make the trip to rescue Starling. And rescue her from what? A job setback? Since when is the internal suspension of an FBI agent on CNN International news?
When your plot requires Hannibal Lecter of all people to act like an idiot for it to work, you need to do another rewrite. The script needed a complete reworking. Or, hear me out here, they could have kept the novel’s lunacy. It would not be good, mind you, but it would certainly be entertaining.
In Conclusion
In Conclusion: Julianne Moore is a fantastic actress who does not shy away from projects that most observers assume will be flaming train wrecks (She did both Gus Van Sant’s shot for shot remake of Psycho and a Madonna soft core sex thriller.). Both she and Anthony Hopkins make Hannibal well worth the watch.
Throw in tons of scenery porn, lessons about Dante, and Gladiator director Ridley Scott shot compositions and you are in for at least an acting and visual treat. If you want a good story well read a book. Though probably not Thomas Harris’s Hannibal if we are to be completely truthful.
