Review of Hannibal Rising (2007) by Emma R — 09 Aug 2010

A fan favorite of international cinema for over 20 years, novelist Thomas Harris?s mass-murdering cannibal Hannibal Lecter remains proof that movie fans love a good villainous turn. With the exception of Michael Mann?s Manhunter in 1986 (later remade as Red Dragon in 2002), Anthony Hopkins has carved an indelible niche as this character in 3 successful films, most notably with an Oscar-winning turn in The Silence of the Lambs. Though the movie and performance are better than one would expect of an unwarranted prequel, the overlong and slow-starting Hannibal Rising cannot stand on its own merits without this indelible link.

In this R-rated prequel to the popular Hannibal the Cannibal series (Dragon, Lambs, Hannibal), the notorious Lecter?s (Ulliel) younger years as a traumatized orphan in post-World War II Europe are chronicled.

In Hannibal Rising, Gaspard Ulliel does a laudable job of injecting a sympathetic menace into the titular character as a young man, but the paper-thin story (well, cardboard-thin is a fairer assessment) could have used the erstwhile Hopkins (possibly even serving as narrator in the present day) to bridge this effort with the rest of the popular franchise. Director Peter Webber, who so beautifully rendered the life and work of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer in Girl with the Pearl Earring, textures the war-torn backdrop with a whiskey tint that perfectly complements Lecter?s war-torn soul. Commendably, Webber even punches some actual chills into the anemic script. Despite the efforts of Webber and Ulliel, however, the story?s shortcomings make Hannibal Sinking a more appropriate title for this go-round.

Bottom line: Sinking feeling.