Review of Hannibal (2001) by Patrick E — 14 Jun 2010

Hannibal is a commendable sequel to 1991's Silence of the Lambs (which many people forget is a sequel itself) and is a good film in it's own right but a massive let down considering the film it follows. Much has been made of Jodie Foster and director Jonathon Demme not reprising their roles, and the film suffers greatly because of this. Writer of the original books Thomas Harris penned Hannibal in the aftermath of the success of Silence of the Lambs. The book was sent to Jonathon Demme but he was unimpressed, however the studio's still wanted to make a film out of it. A screenplay was written and 15 re-writes later Foster and Demme quit the production due to the direction the screenplay was taking. Ridley Scott and Julianne Moore were hired in their place and both dud as good a job as could be expected.

The plot revolves around Clarice Starling trying to save her FBI career by finding fugitive Lector. Lector's fourth victim Mason Verger (played brilliantly by an unrecognisable and uncredited Gary Oldman) has put up a bounty of $3m for Lectors capture which entices Italian policeman Pazzi to join the hunt. Needless to say there are plenty of killings along the way. It is a more simplistic plot than Silence and the script isn't nearly as good. Scott did as good a job as he could with the material he was given, there are some good action scenes and two stand out gory scenes which were excellently done, but there is very little tension or suspense which Silence had in droves. Julianne Moore again did a decent job but there is always the feeling in the back of your mind that she is not Jodie Foster. Hopkins puts in a very impressive performance as Lector and makes him as frightening as possible but the set pieces seriously limit what he can do. Underwhelming would be the best way to describe most of the filing and this is mainly due to the poor book that Thomas Harris wrote to follow Silence of the Lambs.

Hannibal is a good film and is certainly worth watching but it doesn't come close to living up to the original and it suffers from the lack of Foster and Demme and the constant rewrites. Not nearly as disturbing and dark as Silence of the Lambs, which is very disappointing. You are left wondering what could have been should Foster and Demme no quit the production.