Hannibal Rising

Reviewed by Alicia Glass
August 13, 2007

Studio: MGM Director: Peter Webber MPAA Rating: R Website: Click Here

Gaspard Ulliel as young Hannibal Lecter.

The story of Hannibal Lecter as a young man, the death of his parents and beloved sister Mischa, and the revenge he takes on those who wronged him that led him to become the terrible “Hannibal the Cannibal.”

As a huge fan of the Hannibal book series and movies, I was rather skeptical in the beginning over the idea of someone other than Anthony Hopkins playing Hannibal Lecter. Let me just say right off the bat, Gaspard Ulliel did an excellent job. On par with Mr. Hopkins, and that is incredibly hard to do. His sharp facial features and ability to hold in emotion while just barely letting it show in his facial tensions, reminiscent of Crispin Glover, make the character believable.

Father and Mother Lecter, along with young Hannibal and his sister Mischa, decide to flee the family castle and hide in the nearby hunting lodge when the fighting on the eastern front collapses during World War II. Mother and Father are both killed during a raid, and the Nazi deserters who find Hannibal and Mischa hiding take up in the hunting lodge to figure out what to do next. Winter is already here, and the Nazis are starving along with the children, so they end up doing the unthinkable: they eat Mischa, Hannibal’s baby sister. Hannibal is eventually rescued by the Russians, who take him to his family’s castle, which has been turned into an orphanage after the war. The orphanage proves to not be the best place for Hannibal, who by dint of old letters from his mother to her brother, finds the manor home of his uncle and wife, the mysterious Japanese Lady Murasaki. She sees the rage in her young charge and while training Hannibal in the ways of her warrior past, tries to counsel him to peace as well. As anyone can guess, it doesn’t work out too well, and Hannibal proceeds to go on a murderous rampage of revenge against the men who destroyed his sister and his childhood.

Okay, yes, it’s violent and bloody and terrible. However, the movie is also keenly acted, entirely believable, and there are many points with which to sympathize our young murderer. (Not necessarily the cannibalism parts, but still.) The culminating scene in which Hannibal is about to kill the Nazi ringleader and has a huge unexpected surprise dropped on him; Hannibal gives a scream that is the ultimate sound of a soul descending to the deepest depths of his own personal hell and never coming back, that sound marks the emergence of Hannibal the Cannibal, that genius and monster, and absolutely makes the movie.

If you are a fan of Thomas Harris and his Hannibal movies, give it a try. If you’re not a fan, give it a try anyway. This movie does a fantastic job of walking the razor line between vengeance and revenge, so don’t miss it!