My first Hannibal Lecter was Brian Cox in Manhunter . As dazzling as Anthony Hopkins was, that’s still my favorite Hannibal portrayal. Like Hopkins, Cox showed us Lecter’s mesmerizing stillness and unnervingly penetrating mind. In both Manhunter and The Silence of the Lambs, what made Hannibal-the-Cannibal so intriguing was that he was not center stage. In both, he was assisting law enforcement officials in tracking down other serial killers. In exchange for his insights and clues, he got the pleasure of probing their minds, getting the same kind of pleasure a cat gets from playing with a mouse before having it for dinner.

But it was less interesting when he took center stage in Hannibal. When he was alongside the central story we were kept remote, limited to glimpses of his combination of intellectual ferocity and appetite for exquisitely calibrated murders. What fascinates is the juxtaposition of his near-omniscience (“you use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L’Air du Temps, but not today”) with his coolness as he destroys (“his pulse never got above 85, even when he ate her tongue”). Giving us so little information allows us to project onto him the boogiemen deep in our subconscious, and that is what makes him so scary. But this time, as we get a chance to see him as a child and a young man, our curiosity may be satisfied, but the additional detail that humanizes him makes him far less interesting.

We first see Lecter as a child, playing with his little sister Mischa near the family castle in Lithuania. They are soon hurried away by their loving parents to a cottage in the woods. The Nazis are approaching. But Hannibal’s family is killed by a brutal group of Lithuanian collaborators led by Vladis Grutas (Rhys Ifans). After the way, Lecter (now played by French actor Gaspard Ulliel) finds himself at a Communist-run school located in what had once been his home.

As they say on report cards, he does not work well with others. Criticized for “not honoring the human pecking order,” he extracts revenge from his chief tormenter and runs away to France to find his last relative. She is the Japanese widow of his late uncle, Lady Murasaki Shikibu. And she is played by Chinese actress Gong Li, showing off two of her most famous features, the ability to make tears well up in her eyes several different ways, all both beautiful and compelling, and that quality which, since her part of the story is set in France, we can refer to as her belle poitrine.

Lady Murasaki provides some sympathy — and some martial arts training and he goes to medical school, with a work-study job preparing bodies for autopsy, all of which will come in handy as he decides to track down the people who killed his family. Meanwhile, a French cop (Dominic West) is getting suspicious.

So, what we have is less the deliciously shivery “fava beans and a nice chianti” than a brutal, but understandable and even sympathetic quest for vengeance. Lecter’s otherness is lessened; he almost seems ordinary. What comes next is all pretty standard — track them down one at a time and kill them in very unpleasant ways, tossing in a couple of visual references to the earlier (when they were made)/later (when they take place) works, generally more striking than relevant.

By the time we get to one last revelation, the one that is supposed to kick-start Lecter from revenge killing into psychotic killing, well, the thrill is gone. Having Lecter scarred by someone who is as completely over-the-top loathsome as Grutas creates a dilemma. Does he become the new monster? Is the next sequel/prequel going to give us his backstory? As serial killer movies go, this one is all right. As Hannibal Lecter movies go, it’s a long way from whatever is in second-to-last place.

Parents should know that this this movie features extreme and graphic peril and violence, including grisly images, torture, and cannibalism. It includes WWII battle violence (guns, tanks, a plane) and war crimes, including Nazi execution of a Jew and a Gypsy and the butchery of a child. Characters use some strong and crude language. There are some crude sexual references, including prostitution. There are racist references and we see Nazis order the execution of a Jew and a Gypsy.

Families who see this movie should talk about the way people respond to the dire situations of war. They may want to learn about war crimes tribunals like those at Nuremberg and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. What crimes are and are not being addressed by our global legal systems today?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy the other Hannibal Lecter movies, especially Manhunter and The Silence of the Lambs. They will also enjoy the classic serial killer film, No Way to Treat a Lady. If families want to learn more about resistance and complicity with the Nazi occupation during WWII, they should see Partisans of Vilna and The Sorrow and the Pity.

Robert Hanssen was the head of the Soviet department in the FBI. And he was working for the enemy. Over a period of 22 years, he sold vital secrets to the Soviet and Russian governments for $1.5 million, resulting in what the FBI itself called “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in US history.” He was captured in the act of leaving information at a “dead drop” on February 18, 2001 and pled guilty later that year. He is currently serving a life sentence.

Director/screenwriter Billy Ray, who also wrote and directed Shattered Glass, about another Washington figure who was not what he appeared to be, has made a movie about Hanssen (Chris Cooper), and especially about his relationship to Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe), the young FBI agent assigned to be Hanssen’s assistant as the investigators were closing in on him.

The movie was based in large part on the recollections of O’Neill, who was only recently given permission by the authorities to tell his story.

And that is both the strength and the weakness of the story. Hanssen is a character of mesmerizing contradictions, passionately patriotic at the same time he was providing information that led to the deaths of American agents and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to national security. He was a devoted member of Opus Dei, a strictly observant division of the Catholic Church that believes that all people should aspire to sainthood. And he was deeply involved with pornography. In the movie’s most powerful moment, just after he is captured, Hanssen has just one thing to say to the long-time colleague who is looking at him with mingled disbelief and contempt. He tells him that the tracking device they put into his car needs to be improved because it was interfering with the radio reception, and that might be a giveaway.

As he did in Shattered Glass, Ray ably keeps the tension taut, even though we know the end of the story. Cooper is superb, hard as granite, dense as an imploding black hole. He doesn’t make any effort to make Hanssen’s motives clear, but he clearly conveys the rigid compartmentalization that made it possible for him to encompass such stunning contradictions. It is not only national security and integrity that Cooper’s Hanssen is breaching; it is the most fundamental notion of individual identity.

Laura Linney, as Kate Burroughs, the woman supervising the investigation, conveys just the right combination of resolute control and laser-beam focus, and that indispensible combination for significant accomplishment — imperishable idealism in the abstract, no-surprises cynicism in the particular. The often-underestimated Phillippe is fine, but the story goes off-kilter when it spends too much time on his cleverness, his conflicts, and his relationship with his wife. What are we supposed to make of O’Neill’s contrast with Burroghs and Hanssen when it comes to having a life outside of work? Who, in the view of the movie, gets the happy ending? Who can we trust?

Ray is too wise to try to give us any kind of explanation for Hanssen’s betrayal. Instead, he gives us a gripping cat-and-mouse story, using the satisfying conclusion of his capture to make us feel safe enough to begin to explore the terrifying horror of the kind of person who is capable of violation and betrayal on the most fundamental level.

Parents should know that the film has some tense confrontations with characters in peril, including gunshots. Characters drink and use some strong language. There are sexual references, including pornography and “deviance.” The theme of the movie is betrayal and treason. Some audience members may be concerned by the portrayal of the characters’ real and assumed religious faith and practices.

Families who see this movie should talk about the compromises that people in these positions must take and what the government should do to prevent and respond to breaches such as these.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy one of the finest miniseries ever broadcast, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, inspired by the greatest breach in the history of the British equivalent of the CIA, involving Kim Philby, part of the famous “Cambridge spy ring” that included Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, and Anthony Blunt. Other real-life stories of double agents are portrayed in The Falcon and the Snowman and Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within. An unusual aspect of a double-agent’s story is explored in An Englishman Abroad, based on the experience of actress Coral Browne (who plays herself) when she met with Guy Burgess in Moscow, after he defected. Washington DC’s Spy Museum has an exhibit about Robert Hanssen and the people who caught him.

The trailers for “The Messengers” don’t do it justice —
there’s a lot more potential in this movie than appears in the
Grudge– and The Omen-like snippets shown as teasers. The idea isn’t bad. It’s in living up
to this potential that the film slips from an enjoyable, somewhat
innocuous PG-13 fright fest (on par with Signs and The Twilight Zone)
to a dead-end dragger with way too much buildup for the minimal reveal.

At the center of the story is Jess Solomon (Kristen
Stewart), who moves with her mother, father and little
brother from Chicago to the farmlands of North Dakota. As the parents
(played by Dylan McDermott and Penelope Ann Miller) continually hint,
Jess has some growing up to do — after being teased for what seems
like decades, audiences finally learn that 6 months prior, Jess was tipsy when got into an accident with her brother in the
car, which lead not only to obvious strife in the family but also to
the family’s savings being spent on medical bills for the toddler. His only remaining effect from the injuries is a reluctance to speak. How Original. That fact alone should tell you all you need to know about the big
finale.

The family is moving to make a fresh start, and what better
place than a rickety abandoned structure that despite being
surrounded by sunny fields remains perpetually in shadow.

As the father, McDermott seems content to act as if the
role of dad could be accomplished by simply directing the phrases
“We’ve got to make this work,” “That’s what I’m talking
about,” and “I love you sport,” to his wife, guy friend, and
daughter, respectively. He is determined to deny all the signs of a
family about to enter a horror movie, in favor of proving that he can
do it — he can run the farm, he can hold the family together, he can
be completely oblivious to every bad omen possible cliche.

By the time all the family secrets are revealed,
however, hints about the family’s past — Jess’s “mistake”
especially — have been hinted at so much that the satisfaction of
finally being told is outweighed by both resentment for
having been teased and (in “mistake’s” case) distaste at the
seriousness of the offense. This pattern of excessively long, drawn
out teases followed by anticlimactic unveilings and ultimate
disappointment is not, to put it diplomatically, limited to this one
instance.

As Jess begins to experience haunting that only she and
her little brother perceive, the film shows glimpses of
promise. The intensity of the suspense and creepy images and the intensified trust issues between Jess and her parents lies a glimmer of a better film. The
shock at realizing that walls torn apart, lamps broken and windows
shattered reassemble miraculously before the mother and father return
home is thrilling in a surreal, psychological way, bringing not only
ghosts and ghouls to the table but dream-like mind games as well.
Given this and a few moments of strategic misdirection, and it’s
refreshing to see a horror film that tries to get its shocks from plot twists rather
than gore. But ultimately, these messengers show up empty-handed.

Parents should know that characters refer to driving
under the influence, and the opening scenes depict a mother and
daughter being beaten by an invisible force while a young son looks
on in terror. There are moments of suspense and some
frightening and disturbing images of ghosts. Most of the film’s
violence stems from the spirit world, but there are several instances
of living characters directing violence at one another. Keeping the
film well under the R-rating radar, however, the language is tame and
sexual content limited to a bad pun on the Kama Sutra.

Families who see this film should talk about the
importance of trust between parents and children. Jess tells a peer
that when her parents asked her to pick up her brother and drive him
home, she was afraid to tell them she had been drinking with friends
(and thus made the incredible mistake of going to pick up her brother
while still under the influence). Why does staying silent about
having been drinking betray her parents’ trust? Could Jess have
trusted her parents to respect her honesty if she told them the truth
about not being able to drive, even if it meant facing their
disappointment in her decision to drink?

Families who enjoy this film might also enjoy Poltergeist and the
classic television series The Twilight Zone — the complete series is now available on DVD. Families will also be
interested in the work of M. Night Shyamalan, the director behind thrillers featuring children
Signs and The Sixth Sense, and might also explore the previous work
of Danny and Oxide Pang, twin brothers who only recently Americanized
their angle after being active in the Hong Kong filmmaking world for
nearly a decade.