Hannibal

I heard some bad things about Hannibal before I went to see it; terms such as "gore-fest" and rumours that, unlike the masterpiece prequel Silence of the Lambs, it lacked genius and suspense. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these judgements are unfounded. While Hannibal is no Silence, it is a work of certain genius in its own way, and carried enough suspense to keep me interested right to the end of its slightly overlong two hours ten minutes.

Genius comes, of course, in the form of Anthony Hopkins who plays the charming but evil Hannibal Lecter, a paradox of a man who is a true gentleman yet has no respect for human life. Since his escape from captivity in the previous film, Hannibal has been living in Florence, Italy. This brings me to the second bit of genius, the photography. Florence always looks good enough to eat in films, and Hannibal is no exception. The direction and editing is also first-rate — Ridley Scott took on a huge challenge to make Hannibal a worthy sequel to Silence, and I believe he succeeded.

The only real disappointment for me was the fact that the FBI agent, Clarice Starling was not played by Jodie Foster, but by Julianne Moore. Although Moore gives a very good performance, I did miss Foster since she’s one of my favourite actors.

The film seems split into two parts. The first part involves an Italian police inspector who discovers the huge reward for Hannibal’s capture and takes it upon himself to attempt to reap the reward. This, of course, has disastrous consequences. The inspector does not understand the extent of Hannibal’s insanity, the fact that he can kill someone and pull out their guts while at the same time being polite and civil to them. Indeed, this is what I find so attractive in such a madman. I can’t think of any other actor who could play Hannibal Lecter as well as Hopkins — he is simply so charming that I like him despite the fact that he would probably want to eat me.

The second part of the film takes place when Hannibal returns to the US and starts playing mind games with Clarice. This proceeds to the point where Clarice actually finds herself involved in a bizarre rescue operation where she must save Hannibal from being eaten alive by another madman.