Hannibal Review
by James Brundage (cnull AT mindspring DOT com)February 18th, 2001
HANNIBAL
A film review by James Brundage
Copyright 2001 filmcritic.com
filmcritic.com
10 years ago to this day, Hannibal Lecter burned himself into our
memory, our catchphrases, and our popular culture, and now, he sits at
the head of the table once again, packing movie theatres, dominating
dinner conversations, and prompting people to try fava beans. With the
release of Hannibal, one of the most anticipated films in the past two
years, we're forced to reassess a budding franchise -- much like we did
with Star Wars: Episode I.
Hannibal is not that refined, deeply charming, and psychological
suspenseful yarn we met behind bars in Silence of the Lambs' Baltimore
mental ward, three steps up from Bedlam. It is instead a slasher flick
with a slice of culture and a psycho killer with a bit of panache, a
shoot-em-up with a little suaveness.
Hannibal begins by stealing the Big Brother surveillance credits from
Enemy of the State, then launches into a wonderfully filmed but
otherwise dull DEA/FBI/ATF/cops vs. drug dealer shootout stolen from
half a dozen sleek action films. It then degenerates into a
cat-and-mouse chase (more spying, more sleek assassin-style killings,
much less charm) a la Eye of the Beholder. And just as we're starting
to get annoyed with Gary Oldman's turn as The Man Without a Face (if he
were a former victim of our antihero who then became a bitter old prick
who found Christ), out come the cannibalistic pigs.
Hannibal is the kind of horror film that's just a step above ludicrous
slasher pic. There's very little actual psychology to it, a plethora of
spooky "jump" moments and violin crescendos, and characters that develop
no more than the previous film had already done.
And were it not for the fact that Hannibal does have the few things many
slasher stories lack: rustic charm, incredibly stylistic directing, and
one of the better orchestral scores I've recently heard (Hans Zimmer
does a very creepy arrangement on a well-known aria that just makes your
skin crawl), it would be the type of movie which would have audiences
running for the exits midway through.
What we're left with is just the kind of film that will bore you for the
first hour and either grosses you out or makes you bowl over laughing
during the second.
Unlike Silence and Manhunter before it, there's nothing intelligent
about Hannibal. The dark humor is a notch above fart and dick jokes
(eg. Starling gets a letter from the Guinness Book of World Records
congratulating her on being the female FBI agent who has shot and killed
the most people) and Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) has become nothing short
of a caricature. Instead of the cold, calculated fellow we met a decade
ago, we are given the sort of clumsy serial killer that wouldn't survive
in the real world. Lecter's evil shifts from a disturbing psychological
malignance to a straight-out killer are baffling. The New Lecter
doesn't play any games and doesn't mess with anyone's head other than
Clarice Starling. He even has the obligatory scene (twice) where he
calmly walks away from a murder. Rather than being the menace that once
picked his victims with care, Lector acts like he's simply out to double
his record of 14 victims, and he falls just slightly short of his goal.
As far as Clarice goes, Julianne Moore slips into Jodie Foster's Nikes
in a way that may precipitate a Celebrity Deathmatch between the duo,
but Moore handles the role well, considering what the book was.
Hannibal's Starling is more battle-hardened, and Moore performs this
caricature fairly well. If she only had the West Virginia accent down
(she sounds more like a Californian doing an impression of a trailer
park girl), we might like her even more. As it is, she simply does a
so-so job with a complicated character by playing it to the lowest
common denominator (at one point she even wears a very low-cut miniskirt
to a meeting with someone who had earlier sexually harassed her).
As far as whether Clarice and Lecter ever hook up, let me say simply
that Hannibal is a lot like a bad episode of The X-Files. Plenty of
mystery and more than a few open ended questions, leaving us plenty of
room for another sequel.
(Also note: stick around for the credits to hear Hannibal's ta-ta.)
RATING: **1/2
|----------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
|----------------------------------|
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Ridley Scott
Producer: Dino De Laurentis, Martha Schumacher
Writer: David Mamet, Stephen Zaillian
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman, Ray Liotta
http://www.hannibalthemovie.com/
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