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| Movies,
Jerry Carpenter,
19 February 2001 |
Rating: F3
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I can’t remember the last time I went to the cinema to find the lobby actually heaving with people all champing at the bit to get into the theatre – and all of them there to see a film about a jovial, cultured fellow who likes to snack on man-guts. Gosh, what a bunch of sickies I thought, as I paid for a ticket for myself.
‘Hannibal’, as if you didn’t know from coverage in every form of media ever ( yeah, including here, ho-ho-ho ) is the continuing story of FBI agent Clarice ( now a lot older and a fair old bit more miserable ) and Hannibal the serial killer, now enjoying a new lease of life as an art lecturer in gloriously photographed Florence. The two resume contact when Hannibal pens a letter to Clarice to sympathise with her ball busting at the hands of an FBI tribunal for a botched job she didn’t wasn’t responsible for. Also on the trail of the cheeky meat-loving mucker are hideously deformed millionaire Gary Olman, Hannibal’s only surviving victim, and world weary Italian cop Giancarlo Gianni, who just wants to bust him so he can buy his sexy wife endless tickets to the opera with the reward.
For the most part this is effective man-hunt thriller stuff, with the unusual aspect that the major protagonist Clarice isn’t even in the same country as her quarry for a large portion of the film. Instead the film aims to put Hannibal at it’s centre, and while not going to the lengths of a Freddy Kruger kill-em-for-laughs flick, it does allow Anthony Hopkins large slices of ham to chew on. Any tension built up as he goes about his business is dissipated either by a corny line or a nutty eye twitch – there’s far and few moments of actual horror to match the previous two films. Instead it’s all – ‘Ahh, time for a BITE to EAT !’, and ‘Ahh, you bought the WINEÂ…GOOD !’ before each bang on the head with a meat tenderiser.
So it doesn’t cut it as a full-on scare fest perhaps, but then anyone aware of the basic plot of the original novel was always expecting some kind of whacked-out comedy instead. Sure enough, the final few scenes do go off in a totally bizarre direction, dispensing with any of the serious crime-investigation elements of the original Thomas Harris novels, and playing it along almost Adam’s Family gruesome stylings. These scenes are a right old hoot to be sure, but have the effect of making you completely blank out the earlier parts of the film. So great photography, decent performances, an evocative music score, and a pretty ripe script make this worthwhile, but can’t stop it becoming ‘The Return of the Jedi’ of this particular set of films. Could’ve been worse though, could’ve been ‘The Phantom Menace’ – ‘Ahh, Jar-jar, you’re just in time for DESERT !’. Ugh.
UK rating:
18
US rating:
R
Ridley Scott
Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman
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