Not all thrillers are created equal. Sometimes they just aren’t as thrilling, or scary, or complex, or dark, or thought-provoking as you hope they will be. Sometimes they are based on a book that is good, but not quite as good as the book that came before in the series, and sometimes they lose a lot from page to screen that doesn’t keep them from becoming kind of … campy. Sometimes even though the cast is awesome and trying the hardest they can to make the material better, it just doesn’t happen.
Sometimes a thriller is Hannibal, the sequel film (and book) to classic thriller/horror/drama film (and book) Silence of the Lambs.
The plot of Hannibal basically breaks down like this: It’s been a decade since the events of Silence of the Lambs and in that time a lot has changed. Clarice Starling has not only grown to be a hardened veteran of the FBI, she’s managed to transform into Julianne Moore! Hannibal Lecter is still gallivanting around the world played by Anthony Hopkins, but he’s left his asylum garb behind for swanky hats and dapper jackets, and his pre-incarceration life as a psychiatrist behind for the life of a curator to an Italian document library. Just how will these two crazy kids find each other again? Well…after some hard knocks come to Clarice’s career she finds herself back on the Lecter case and trying to hunt him down on the other side of the world. Hannibal is being chased by nosey Italian policemen who want a giant reward, as well as creepy former victims who are still smarting at the loss of their innocence – and face. Soon bloody violence, man-eating pig mayhem, and the dinner to end all dinners work to throw Clarice and Hannibal “The Cannibal” back together.
I hate to be THAT person and say a book was better than its movie, and really the Hannibal film isn’t terrible (especially compared to Hannibal Rising, which is so awful I completely forgot I paid to see it in a theater when it first came out). It’s just … not as good. So much had to be left out to make it all fit within a couple of hours. The loss is obvious. And the ending. Grrrr. The ending is completely different. I know a lot of people were angered by the ending of the book, but personally I found it a lot creepier and more fitting with the tone of the story. It is a rough ending to accept but the whole premise is rough to begin with. And maybe it seems to detract from the strength of the main character BUT I never found her to be that strong of a heroine to begin with.
Clarice Starling is a damaged individual who wants to paint the world in blacks and whites and stop bad guys because once upon a time she lost the person she loved most to a bad guy. She is broken before the story ever begins, even when she puts on her Game Face and meets Hannibal Lecter for the first time. She’s all naïve self-righteousness in Silence of the Lambs, and ten years later in Hannibal she’s hard and bitter and tired and still self-righteous but that self-righteousness is breaking down. It isn’t such a jump of logic to believe that she’d do what she ends up doing at the end of the book (which I will be good and not spoiler because I think everyone should just go out and read the book and then come back and let me know what you thought).
Hannibal, 2001
Starring Julianne Moore, Anthony Hopkins, Gary Oldman, Ray Liotta
Directed by Ridley Scott
Written by David Mamet (screenplay), Thomas Harris (novel)
