Review – Hannibal

Let me see if I can start this review by saying something nice about the movie: at least it took less time to get through than the book. There, that’s as close as I can come to a compliment for this dreadful piece of garbage. Sir Anthony Hopkins dines on co-stars and scenery with equal relish in this faulty follow-up to smash hit Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins plays the title character as a pathetic mixture of Henry Lee Lucas and Truman Capote, essentially leaving any hope the production might have in the hands of Julianne Moore (as Starling), Gary Oldman (as the makeup-coated villain) and a pack of killer pigs that definitely win the Night of the Lepus award for monsters way too cute to be scary. The movie takes a few liberties with the plot from the book – some for the better, others for the worse. But in the end neither the celluloid nor the paper version of this third “Hannibal the Cannibal” tale ever manages to rise much above the level of dull, which needless to say is a fatal flaw for a suspense thriller. See if desperate