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Review #394 of 365
Movie Review of Hannibal Rising (2007) [R] 117 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $12.50
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 10 February 2007
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
DVD Release Date: unscheduled
Directed by: Peter Webber (Girl with a Pearl Earring)
Screenplay by: Thomas Harris based on his novel
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Aaron Thomas (debut) • Helena Lia Tachovska (debut) • Rhys Ifans (Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties) • Richard Brake (The Black Dahlia) • Kevin McKidd (Kingdom of Heaven) • Stephen Walters (Revolver) • Gaspard Ulliel (Paris, je t'aime) • Li Gong (Curse of the Golden Flower) • Dominic West (The Forgotten)
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
Not having read the book, I can only presume that with Thomas Harris behind the screenplay, it adheres well to his vision for Hannibal Lecter's rise to infamy, if not his exact prose. Hannibal Rising poses the same sort of problem for Harris that the first three chapters of the Star Wars saga posed for George Lucas. How does one create a madman out of a sane little boy? Is it ironic that both chose an unlikely mentor, a great sabre, and a mask to outfit and cloak the emerging villain? Not to mention that bouts with infanticide help push things over the edge? The story all begins back when the Soviet occupation of Lithuania was in full force and the Lecter family flees its castle to a cottage in the forest hoping to avoid getting in the middle of the firing lines. Unfortunately, an air strike directed at tanks watering outside their cottage leaves all but young Hannibal (Aaron Thomas) and his sister, Mischa (Helena Lia Tachovska) dead. Fending for themselves for days, the two become prisoners in their own homes when the brutal and ruthless Grutas (Rhys Ifans) and his band of mercenaries discover their house and intend to hide out until things cool down and they can escape being caught and punished by the Soviet forces. As the brutally cold winter and hunger due to a lack of food bear down on the group, Grutas makes the decision that Mischa, having grown sickly, will be next up on the menu. The brutality of the act sends Hannibal over the edge. Years later, Hannibal, is forced to grow up in an orphanage set up in his former castle. Here he is bullied and branded a nuisance as he has horrendous nightmares and screams out for help. He discovers here, however, the taste for blood and revenge as he ends the bullying with a brutal act of cold vengeance. Escaping the confines at a hearty age of 17ish (Gaspard Ulliel), he flees by train in search of his long lost uncle and aunt whom he knows to have lived in Paris. His guile guides him directly to the home of Lady Murasaki Shikibu (Li Gong) who takes him in when her staff sees that he has pictures of her and her long lost husband, Hannibal's uncle. The two form an unlikely bond as Aunt and nephew. She trains him in the arts of Japanese warfare and self defense. His curiosity grows as do his feelings for her. An unsavory incident in the fish market where a fisherman insults his Aunt, compels him later to sentence the man to death. This murder sparks the keen interest of French Inspector Popil (Dominic West) who feels the boy's not letting on to all he knows. His Aunt signs a warrant of complicity when she plants evidence to secure him from suspicion. All three, Hannibal, Lady Murasaki, and Inspector Popil share a common familial thread—they lost their entire families to the war. This fact, in effect, binds them, as much as it complicates things emotionally. A place in medical school brings the adoring nephew a new-found purpose and the wonderful discovery of human anatomy. But, as Hannibal grows older and learns more of the world, his passion to seek and destroy the men responsible for the death of his sister consumes him. His ingenious brilliance affords him the means to his end, and his childhood vow to his sister's memory motivates him onward to kill every man involved.
"…anticlimactic…It takes forever for Hannibal to become Hannibal…"
The diffuse goal, however, leads to one of the problems with the film. It lacks, in some ways, a genuine climax because the final confrontation with the arch villain lacks the closure Hannibal needs, and after which, he runs off to Canada to take care of the final piece to his puzzle. This leads to a bit of anticlimactic film, in some ways. While the acting is impeccable, and the direction completely justified, the story meanders to and fro nearly aimlessly at times. Even so, the young French actor, Gaspard Ulliel, does a phenomenally wicked job of catching the stages in Hannibal's development into a full-blown monster. His appetite for cheeks and punishing those who transgressed against his loved ones firmly seared into his steel-gray stare and his uneven, high cheekbone dimple. Obviously, it is easy to root for him and see him as a vigilante rather than a psychotic murderer. And this is the other problem with the story. From what we see, Hannibal is justified in his actions were it not for the legal consequence of taking justice into one's own hands. What exactly then snaps him forever altering his perspective on life and turning him into the murderous killer we've come to know through the other Hannibal Lecter stories? Equally problematic from a film enjoyment perspective is the incredibly slow beginning. It takes forever for Hannibal to become Hannibal. Despite these unanswered questions and issues, overall, the film is a worthy character sketch. It is not a tense and dramatic thriller like the previous films. There are no heart-pounding moments when we hope the screaming victim might escape. Instead, we see the ever increasingly callous and brutal methods Hannibal divines to rid the world of these vermin fair trial or not.
"…Gaspard Ulliel, does a phenomenally wicked job…"
Again, much like the story of Anakin Skywalker, Hannibal Rising, provides the answers for how the villain became the villain and puts audiences in the peculiar position of rooting for the villain and fills the stomach with an uneasy feeling of dread. While we can understand the metamorphosis of the timid, sweet little boy into an alter ego with evil destinations ahead, the intermediate form, the pupa if you will, straddles the border between protecting its own humanity or plunging off into darkness. This is the psychological dimension, a sort of self-torture, that provides the bulk of the emotional sadness in Hannibal's transformation. Finally, the film shares one more thing in common with the first three chapters of Star Wars. As they were brought out, if not conceived, after the villain has already appeared in grand glory, there will be a large number of fans who find the prequel notion dull. They will be unwilling or unable to see an aging of the prequel actor into their favorite super villain. No one will ever be able to portray Darth Vader as well as David Prowse in a black mask with the voice of James Earl Jones. To a degree, they are quite right as legions of Star Wars fans proved to dislike the prequels even though they shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars in hope they might be wrong. Such is also the case for Hannibal Lecter. Some fans likely will find the film dull beyond the slow introduction and the methodical travels of Hannibal as he discovers his passion for consuming those transgressors of societal niceties. To a degree, they are right. Yet, they must give some credit in both cases to the minds of the men who conceived the villains first and their path to villainy second for this is not an easy thing to do and preserve the authenticity of their character. While these prequels are something we probably don't need or even want, our own human nature draws us in to see them nonetheless. Probably, however, the better way around is to start with the prequel, that way no one will be disappointed later. If only they had the foresight to know their villains would reach this level of societal intrigue as to warrant such an inside look, the prequel becomes the first chapter rather than a tacky add-on after the fact resembling a financial ploy designed to lure in more dollars from a pre-existing franchise due to our morbid curiosity which is just as interested in how a sociopath becomes such as in his dreadful deeds later in life.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
Other Projects Featuring Hannibal Rising (2007)
Cast Members
Aaron Thomas
• Helena Lia Tachovska • Rhys IfansRichard Brake
• Kevin McKidd • Stephen WaltersIvan Marevich
• Gaspard Ulliel • Li GongDominic West
Director
Peter Webber
Writer
Thomas Harris
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| Related DVD | Related DVD | Related Books |
Hannibal Rising (2007) Review-lite [150-word cap]
Thomas Harris penned the screenplay for Hannibal Rising which promises to reveal the horrific past that consumed young Hannibal Lecter compelling him to become a brilliant serial killer with a taste for his victims and a fine wine. The young French actor, Gaspard Ulliel, is Hannibal vowing to avenge the death of his younger sister at the hands of starving Lithuanian mercenaries. His deft performance captures wickedly the stages in Hannibal's development into a full-blown monster. His appetite for cheeks and punishing those who transgressed against his loved ones firmly seared into his steel-gray stare and his uneven, high cheekbone dimple. The diffuse goal, however, leads to an anticlimactic finale and surely paves the way for more stories of the young Hannibal. The film becomes a worthy character sketch but may fail to deliver, as prequels often do, all that the diehard fans seek to know about their villain.
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