In this script, Hannibal is a creature of fancy, not an embodiment of our most elemental fears. The promise of Hannibal is to bring us into the mind of the monster who so petrified us in The Silence of the Lambs . The promise of Hannibal is that the relationship between Hannibal and Starling will be deepened and the conflict resolved, one way or another. But we never come to understand Hannibal. Closure between Hannibal and Starling is never achieved.
Promises go unfulfilled in favor of providing stylish thrills.
It's entertainment, but it's not terribly profound. Do not read if you have not seen the film and intend to do so. During pre-production, there was a lot of coverage in the entertainment media about the fact that studio and stars were deeply dissatisfied with the ending of Thomas Harris' book. The movie's ending was therefore substantially rewritten. Knowing that Clarice's deepest psychological need is to please her father, Hannibal engages in some therapy, I suppose is the word for it, involving the bones of her father that he has dug up in West Virginia.