Hannibal Film Review

So after the behemoth that was the award-winning and financially successful Gladiator, Ridley Scott decided to helm, from a script initially written by David Mamet, his only sequel to a film he didn’t make, Hannibal. A sequel to the iconic 1991 film The Silence of The Lambs and adapted from Thomas Harris’s novel of the same name which itself was a sequel to his novel The Silence of the Lambs. The first story goes that FBI Agent Clarice Starling, (played brilliantly by Jodie Foster) has to solve a murder case centred around the serial killer Buffalo Bill and has to seek advice from famed prisoner and cannibal doctor Hannibal Lecter (played legendarly by Anthony Hopkins) within prison and starts a psychological battle of wits between the mad doctor and the FBI Agent who wants to capture the killer in time before he takes his next victim. The film was savage, dark and had a brilliantly scary performance from Anthony Hopkins that would earn him his Oscar.

Cut to this next film which takes place some time after the fact, Clarice Starling (now played by Julianne Moore) leads a sting operation that goes horribly wrong. For reasons that are quite contrived, Starling is sent soon after to track Lecter who has since escaped and is on the FBI’s most wanted list. Meanwhile in Italy we follow a Roman cop who while leading an investigation comes to know a library architect who he comes to discover is ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’ himself in hiding (Hopkins returns here). Topped off with a sleazy agent played by Ray Liotta and a former victim of Hannibal’s Mason Verger (played in heavy make-up by Gary Oldman) a dangerous millionaire who wants to trap and kill Lecter with killer pigs, all of which adds to a messy and frankly pale comparison to its predecessor.

Like Gladiator, this film was in development hell for some time, to the point that Jodie Foster couldn’t return to reprise her role, and this is one of many problems with the follow-up. Due to a messy script, there are minimal scenes between Lecter and Starling and the filmmaker’s attempts to capture lighting in a bottle falls flat, as their chemistry and interaction could not be on par with Hopkins and Foster and just feels like a half-assed reunion. Most of the time they take a step back to the cop character (played by Giancarlo Giannini) who’s character attempts to profit from Lecter, is so unlikable it’s hard to care about him and his subplot all together. Gary Oldman’s make-up makes him indistinguishable – and it is good make up – and Gary Oldman is a terrific actor – but the script has nothing for him to do apart from be gleefully vile and unpleasant without anything three-dimensional about him at all.

While the first film provides stark realism and existential terror, this film plays out rather ridiculously and has only gore to spare when nothing of interest is happening. There is literally a scene involving a brain for which I won’t spoil here which is meant to be shocking but just comes across as comical and out of place. Anthony Hopkins does return and relish the role for which he is arguably most famous for, so there is fun to be had there but for the most part, it feels less like a sequel to The Silence of The Lambs and more like a grim and naff episode of CSI in feature length form. You can tell that Ridley Scott was a director for hire and again a missed opportunity but there are shades of enjoyable madness evoked particularly from the performances from Anthony Hopkins and Gary Oldman.

But with an uncharismatic turn from accomplished actor, Julianne Moore, over-the-top gore and scenes that border on the comically misjudged rather than sharply horrific it doesn’t work, but I would say watch it for Anthony Hopkins alone because he does enjoy his role as Hannibal Lecter with much enthusiasm as it’s possible to have.

2/5