REVIEWED - HANNIBAL RISING:REVIEWING Thomas Harris's Hannibal, Martin Amis famously suggested that the author seemed to have "gone gay" on Hannibal Lecter. Six years later, as a film is released detailing the early life of the cultured cannibal, it becomes clear that what was once a boyish crush has developed into a fully fledged romantic obsession.
Should we mind? Well, Harris's inability to leave his creation alone - Hannibal Rising is based on a recent novel - has already let far too much light in on a murky psyche. Originally a supporting character whose motives were intriguingly obscure, Hannibal Lecter has been ruthlessly analysed over the last two episodes and, his psychological machinery now plainly visible, is rendered as fascinating as yesterday's porridge.
Hannibal Rising, whose dodgy post-synched sound quickly reveals its Europudding origins, takes us back to Lithuania at the end of the second World War. There we discover Hannibal, briefly a cheery lad, living in a gothic pile with his cute sister. Later, after local Nazi sympathisers kill the young girl, Hannibal will make his way to France to begin a distinctly queasy relationship with a Japanese relative (Gong Li). The teenage Hannibal sets out to track down the murderers of his sister and his new protector becomes implicated in his developing lunacies.
What we get from prequels such as Batman Begins and Casino Royale (and, weirdly, the upcoming Jane Austen biopic Becoming Jane) is a story structured around an explanation of how the relevant icon became what he or she is. Unhappily for Hannibal Rising's audience, the anti-hero turns into a deranged cannibal within 30 minutes of the opening credits and is then condemned to tediously repeat the same cheek-scoffing atrocities for the remaining hour and a half.
The ghastly events of Hannibal's childhood - what you'd expect really - do, at least, explain why the bad doctor might develop such a singular diet in later life. What is less clear is how somebody with Gaspard Ulliel's gaunt features and stringy body could grow up into a round Welshman (or, for fans of Michael Mann's Manhunter, a portly Scot). Ulliel, star of A Very Long Engagement, is agreeably unhinged in the part, but he looks more likely to end life as Count Dracula than the Lecter we know.
Peter Webber, director of Girl with a Pearl Earring, does manage to deliver some broad thrills along the way and, if presented as a stand-alone shocker about a different young maniac, the picture might qualify as passable hokum. As it stands, Hannibal Rising gives new meaning to the word "unnecessary".
