Love that Lecter!

Allow me to add to the ongoing Hannibal Lecter debate by saying I think Hannibal is a smashing sequel, the kind of intense psychological thriller that Silence of the Lambs wanted to be.

For all its claims to being a psychological thriller, Silence seemed more interested in taking real, primal fears and reducing them to cheapo "Boo!" effects. By contrast, Hannibal, though it certainly has its share of grossness, is far more of a battle of wits between evil equals. The equals are, of course, the title character (revisited with gusto by Anthony Hopkins) and his only surviving victim, Mason Verger (an uncredited Gary Oldman), whom Hannibal talked into literally defacing himself. (You don't want to know the details.)

Verger sees an opening for revenge when FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore, wonderfully essaying Jodie Foster's role in the original) is involved in a high-profile bust gone wrong. Verger uses Starling as bait to lure back Lecter, who has gone "underground" as an art curator in Italy.

I had a lot of problems with Lecter in the original movie. Why is he so intent on killing and cannibalizing his victims? Why does otherwise intelligent Clarice fall under his spell so easily? And most of all, how does Lecter reconcile his effete snobbishness with his desire to eat people soon after he lectures them on fine art?

But for these eyes at least, Hannibal became (you should pardon the expression) humanized in this movie. As cold-blooded as he is--and here, he's not far removed from Lucifer himself--you really see that Hannibal just can't help himself. And without putting too fine a point on it, Hannibal and Clarice actually find common ground--a feat in no small way to be credited to a riveting screenplay by Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List) and famed playwright David Mamet.

The Hannibal-Clarice connection, like many of the movie's plot threads, could have been laughably embarrassing if taken too far. Instead, it all strikes just the right note as Grand Guignol, old-fashioned chills. And director Ridley Scott's distanced viewpoint, which is usually off-putting, is just what this kind of horror film calls for.

Julianne Moore--not my favorite actress in the world--doesn't exactly make you forget Jodie Foster, but she puts her own stamp on the role of Clarice quite admirably. And Anthony Hopkins? As the hype machine would say, Hopkins is Lecter. He makes you understand how people can fall under his spell--which, in a lesser thriller, would have to explain away a lot of plot discrepancies. Here, it just makes Hannibal the most engrossing movie I've seen in quite some time.

Hannibal is rated R for adult language and very graphic violence and killings.