Full Review: Hannibal (2001)

People in the Movie:  Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman

Director:  Ridley Scott

Pigeonhole:  Suspense / Thriller / Drama

The Basics:  Hopkins reprises his role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, former psychiatrist, and serial killer, who escaped captivity in the preceding film.  Now ten years later, Lecter, while living in Florence, Italy is sought after by a local police detective who intends to collect a bounty placed by a wealthy American, Mason Verger (Oldman).  Verger, who was horribly disfigured after an ‘attack’ by Hannibal many years ago, is obsessed with capturing, torturing, and killing Lecter.  Clarice Starling’s (Moore) veteran FBI career seems to be teetering after a botched drug raid is now drawn back onto the Lecter case by Verger, using his money and political connections.  Lecter escapes Italy, ahead of Verger’s for-hire thugs, and returns to America to play his cat and mouse games with both Starling and Verger.   

Recommendation:  Worth seeing for Hopkin’s and Oldman’s performances.  If you can, watch a DVD/Blue Ray with the extra/deleted scenes, they are worth a look.  As a stand-alone (since this is a sequel) - you can watch and enjoy this movie, and not get lost even if you never watched any of the prior films, or read the books.

My Take: **spoiler alert** I read Hannibal within a week or two of it coming out, and I remember thinking to myself it would be un-filmable, without sizable cuts or alterations, to the story.  While I do not want to make this writing a purely book vs. movie comparison, several items are worth noting:

-Verger was ten times the monster than portrayed in the film – Martini made with child’s tears, anyone?  Oldman still did a great job, overall a very disturbing and physically gruesome character.  He was cast perfectly.

-Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta), the Justice Dept. Director, was a jerk, yes … but more of a backstabbing, politically hungry jerk, than the lecherous, moronic, piece of trash portrayed in the film.  This was a very poor casting choice, in my opinion, and an equally poor direction to take the character.

-Verger’s death seemed to be an afterthought to Scott.  While I realize the book version would have required having the back story with Verger’s sister, it still seemed to be glossed over.  (How would Lecter have known Verger’s assistant would just toss him over the rail to the boars without so much as a second thought?)

-The ending:  the book has Clarice giving up the FBI (after the FBI and Justice Dept. chain of command repeatedly railroaded her) and going away with Hannibal, and them becoming lovers.  The movie has Starling calling 9-1-1, attempting to save Krendler, attempting to capture Hannibal by handcuffing herself to him, and Hannibal subsequently hacking off his own hand to escape.  I did not like the movie ending.  There were 100 different routes the film could have gone, if the book ending was not to the director’s or producers liking.  I was mildly surprised the brain dissecting portion of this was filmed in as much detail, considering this was not a horror film.  Feeding the sautéed brain to the kid on the plane, though, was humorous.

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun:  Following up a great movie like Silence of Lambs was going to be tough, no matter what.  I think Scott, et. al., did the best they could to put together an entertaining film.  I thought Julianne Moore did a fine job as Clarice.  I, personally, was able to watch and enjoy the film without thinking “if only Jodie Foster had come back”.  Hopkins, rightfully, carries the movie.  You always seem to be anticipating what he is going to say or do next, whether it is a well-mannered compliment, a suave, yet biting insult, or an almost falcon-like attack.  In fact, I would say this is part of my problem with the ending; I believe Hannibal deserved a better fate than was given in this film.

This is the third (of 5) Hannibal Lecter movies: Manhunter (1986), Silence of Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001), Red Dragon (2002), Hannibal Rising (2007)  … The is the second (of 3) film with Hopkins as Lecter (Lambs/Hannibal/Dragon) …