I wanted to love this film. I really did. After ten years of waiting
since we were given the cinematic gem that is "The
Silence Of The Lambs" and fifteen years since the film world
was introduced to Hannibal Lecter in "Manhunter". Having seen
the former long ago (and loving every minute of it) and the latter just
a week ago for the first time (and loving practically the entirety of
it) hopes were high for "Hannibal".
Perhaps to high in fact. In retrospect, I think this film suffers from
the same sort of heightened expectations that "The
Phantom Menace" suffered from. The sort of high hopes that
it is unlikely any film could manage to satisfy.
All of the elements were in place. Anthony Hopkins is back to reprise
his role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Julianne Moore is here in place of
Jodie Foster in the role of Clarice Starling. I love Jodie, but I think
that this was an inspired casting move by the powers that be. I would
have accepted no one other than Julianne in this role, because she is
good enough to make the world forget all about Jodie Foster. Which is
exactly what she ends up doing. David Mamet ("The Untouchables")
is also involved, adding his considerable talents to the screenplay.
Director Ridley Scott ("Blade Runner") brings his "Gladiator"
team with him in editor Pietro Scalia and composer Hans Zimmer. In other
words, the prevailing opinion would be that only good things could come
from this film.
For the most part, that is the case, but it also has it's fair share
of faults that could have been shored up quite easily. Before we get
to that, let's delve into the story.
Dr. Lecter has been loose in Europe for eight years, since he escaped
from that cell in Memphis, Tennessee. Clarice Starling has continued
with her career in the FBI. The big things that were expected of her
have never really materialized over the time since she tracked down
Buffalo Bill all those years ago.
Lecter has taken to the idea of becoming a professor at a major university
in Italy. Perhaps trying to lead a normal life for a change? Clarice
is helping track down HIV positive drug merchants. Neither is as we
remember them.
Enter Mason Verger (Gary Oldman). Mason was Lecter's fourth victim,
and the only one who managed to survive. That survival has left him
relegated to a wheelchair and horribly disfigured. So horrible is his
disfigurement that one cannot tell that Oldman is lurking beneath the
flesh. It is hard not to cringe when seeing his wretched state. I know
I winced when I first caught a glimpse. I think that director Ridley
Scott succeeded in his goal to make this character look truly horrid.
So what does this horrid looking creature have to do with the plot?
Well, Verger is understandably pissed that the man that is responsible
for his current condition is roaming about free in the world. He is
a rich man and has put out a reward for any information that can lead
him to Lecter. Revenge is the only thing that is on this man's mind.
He manages to get his lead from an Italian policeman named Rinaldo Pazzi
(Giancarlo Giannini). Pazzi has decided to withhold information from
the FBI, so that he can capture Lecter on his own and claim the reward.
This takes shape through an, at times, interesting game of cat and mouse
between he and Lecter. I felt that this portion of the film was where
it began to lose it's focus. During the segment involving Pazzi and
Lecter, Clarice is all but forgotten. We see her, every so often, in
a basement going over Lecter's files. She is not a key part of the story
at this juncture of the film. This is a problem. The thing that made
"Silence Of The Lambs" work as well as it did was the interplay
between Clarice and Lecter. That key detail is barely even broached
until the final forty-five minutes of the film.
With the exception of the film's abrupt ending, these final forty-five
minutes are nearly flawless in design and execution. Unspeakable things
will happen in these final moments. These are things that are not as
god-awful horrible as they have been made out to be. Crotches are stabbed,
entrails spilt upon the ground and a scalp is peeled. I found myself
laughing during the majority of these moments, because I thought they
were humorous in a very dark way. I think that is what the filmmakers
were trying to do in these scenes and, for the most part, managed to
pull off.
Don't get me wrong. I did like like this movie, but not in the way I
had hoped to. It has many great moments to speak of. The opening battle
at the fish market, which introduces us to Julianne Moore as Clarice
Starling. As I said earlier, she will make you completely forget Jodie
Foster. This happens, because Julianne doesn't try to be Jodie. She,
instead, chooses to become Clarice Starling and she does a fine job
when she is given the chance. There is a great moment after the fish
market battle. Clarice has been very strong-willed at the market, but
when she gets home she breaks down in tears at the thought of what she
has just been through. This was an amazing moment. In that moment Clarice
became more than a beloved part of the film experience. In that moment
she became human. An amazing transformation that took about five seconds
of screen time to accomplish.
The film also has a wonderfully dark sense of humor. While Hopkins is
inhabiting the role of Lecter he manages to deliver another highly quotable
line of dialogue: "I'm seriously considering having your wife for
dinner." Sadly, I think I was one of about fifteen people who laughed.
Can laughs only be elicited through the use of dick and fart jokes anymore?
I'm really beginning to wonder. Other great moments of laughter are
delivered, such as when it is divulged that Lecter once claimed one
of his victims in order to better a symphony that he thought highly
of. This dark humor runs rampant throughout the course of the film.
I felt this was a nice touch for the film. It brought out a side of
Hannibal that we caught a couple of glimpses of in "The
Silence Of The Lambs".
Ridley Scott's direction is, at times, at it's high level of quality
and, at others, decidedly misguided. His visual style is one that has
been proven to have few equals and, in this respect, he delivers. The
visuals are beautiful with the location work in Italy being the highlight
of the completed work. There is one shot, along a river, in Italy that
made me want to get on a plane immediately and make my way overseas.
The downside of his work, which I referred to as misguided, could have
been amended by cleaving about twenty minutes from the run time. The
majority of the cutting would have been done during the segments involving
Pazzi and Lecter. A great deal of it was interesting, but there is also
a lot of fat here that is completely unnecessary to the furthering of
the plot. There are a couple of times where the film nearly comes to
a standstill when dealing with this subplot. Verger's character wasn't
fleshed out very well either. We are given a sick, twisted, horribly
disfigured man and not much else. It would have been nice to get a little
deeper into this character, as he ended up feeling like little more
than a plot device to bring about the inevitable confrontation between
Starling and Lecter.
On the bright side, Hans Zimmer's score is a definite highlight of the
film. Throughout the film's first half you feel as if you have barely
acknowledged it's existence, but by the time you are deep into the second
half of the film you realize that it has done it's job. It has worked
it's way under your skin. It has gotten into your head, and it doesn't
have any intention of leaving any time soon. Zimmer truly is a force
of late. His work here and his masterful score for "Gladiator"
stand as two of the better ones that I have heard in years. Bravo Hans.
I know it doesn't sound like it, but I really did enjoy this film. I
just feel like it left a lot to be desired. With a little liposuction
on the fatty run time and an enhanced amount of screen time for Julianne
Moore this film could have realized the greatness that it so desperately
hoped to attain.
Unfortunately that greatness is only intermittently realized and in
the end the film is just left wanting that greatness which it could
not attain.
