Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Giancarlo Giannini, Ray Liotta, Francesca Neri, Bruno Lazzeretti, Frankie Faison, Gary Oldman (uncredited)

- Reviewed by Tim

A quick summary: Fast forward 10 years, from the end of The Silence of the Lambs, and that's where this story begins. Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore) is now an established FBI agent with long history of service and an even longer kill list. After falling out of good graces with the FBI, in a very public way, Clarice is now under investigation. 

Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), on the other hand, is living in Florence, under the name of Dr. Fell, where he has gone unnoticed for quite some time, but has done his fair share of "sampling" the local culture. He has seen the media frenzy surrounding Clarice and decides to send her a note declaring his pleasure at watching her fall. Needless to say, Hannibal and Clarice are reunited in a game of cat and mouse. The question is: Who's chasing who? 

Hannibal feels like it was rushed in pulling many story lines together and relied on shock value rather than a solid story. There have been many who have declared their dissatisfaction with this movie, and I tend to agree on most points. Julianne Moore looks great, but spends most of the movie in a basement office looking pensive and contemplative. Had Clarice been given something to do, there may have been more to praise about Hannibal. 

Anthony Hopkins is as creepy as ever and kept Lecter very charming and wry. He has a certain menacing look about him that makes it difficult to see him in other roles and not think of him as a cannibal. Ray Liotta has a scene, near the end, that he will be answering to for the rest of his career. "Mmmm, something smells good." I think the humor of that scene is perfectly counterbalanced by the gore. Gary Oldman, although not credited, did a good job at playing an eccentric and vengeful survivor of Lecter's original rampage. 

The cinematography was quite nice with great shots of Florence in both an idealistic and a menacing perspective. The screenplay adaptation, from the book, was pretty close, although it seemed that it, too, was forced. I would love to say that I would see this movie again, but I can't. I think I would rather reflect on how good The Silence of the Lambs was and imagine how different Hannibal could have been.

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