Review of Hannibal (2001) by M. K — 21 Oct 2011

Hannibal in no way lives up to its cinematic predecessor, The Silence of the Lambs (one of the top ten greatest films ever made). It technically isn't even a very good film on its own: the plot drags and is completely lacking in suspense, many of the supporting performances outside of Hopkins, Moore and Oldman are incredibly weak, and Ridley Scott too often resorts to lame music video visual trickery.

That said, it's still an improvement on the terrible book, and Hannibal does have one thing going for it: it's f**king hilarious.

Gary Oldman's embodiment of hideously disfigured pedophile Mason Verger is one of the most amusing performances of the decade. Everything he says in that arch, whiny voice immediately becomes pure comic gold. It doesn't matter what the topic of discussion is: "poor cast-off little boys and girls who'd do anything for a candy bar", cutting his own face off and feeding it to the dogs (the scene's punchline--"It seemed like a good idea at the time..."--is absolutely priceless), or monologuing to Hannibal his evil plan to feed him to giant ravenous boars (!!!)--it's all hilarious. Hopkins latches on to this spirit, too: he turns the dial of his Vocal Mannerisms control and switches it to "extreme camp"; Hannibal, paragon of evil, spouts lines like "okey dokey" while barely suppressing a nasty chuckle. The film is saved by its unrestrained silliness, but it does have some strong serious points; Julianne Moore is game as the more hardened Clarice, and Scott does manage to pull off two brilliant sequences: the flashback scene of Mason Verger providing his doggies with some facial food (complete with incomparable punchline) and the final confrontation between Clarice and Hannibal. Its the only other scene that perfectly melds the humor and horror the film otherwise fails to balance, and is a rare reminder that Scott once used to have real talent.

Plus, it pisses all over the dreadful ending of the book. At least like Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal is another rare example of a film that bests the book.