movie: Hannibal
starring: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore
genre: Thriller, Crime
year: 2001
format: Shaw Video On Demand
plot: Ten years after capturing the case that made her career, Clarice Starling, is given a chance to interview a surviving victim of Hannibal's. Only to find out the man is obsessed with revenge. She soon finds herself as bait, having to choose between the lesser of the two evils.
This is based on the novel of the same name, and the second in the Hannibal franchise.
The first half of this movie is a straight up crime drama, filled with shady characters you would expect. The last 40 minutes, it becomes nearly comical in it's attempt at being disturbing, reminding me a lot of "Nightmare on Elm Street".
Gary Oldman is eerie with just the right amount of loathing, buried under what looks like five pounds of special effects make-up. And all though, Hopkins had already played the lead role before, the feeling in this movie was that it was an unknown character. I don't know if that was the design of the role or not? Given it is a ten year time gap in the story's plot as well as in the real life filming of it from Silence of the Lambs.
One of the main sub-plots seems to be the relationship between Hannibal and Clarice. It for me just felt like it was not deep enough a romance. You plainly get the notion from the beginning of the film that they have come to more then respect each other, but it comes off as being not sure of itself, like it can't make up it's mind if it wants to be a lover's romance or a mentor's. It's almost too much surfacy and not cerebral enough. This might have something to do with the fact the movie was sort of left open, as if they figured another sequel was on the way.
And I have one nagging question, how is it the wild boars that were trained to sniff out human flesh and attack, ran past Hannibal while he just stood there?
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