Maybe a Little Too Much

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2006)

Though there are few films so outwardly violent, the real gold in this film comes from the interaction between Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. He prowls like a lion, back and forth in his glass cage, muzzled, dangerous. Foster reacts to him as you would someone who could kill you if you looked away for a second. Parry and thrust. As the film develops, a charming kind of standoff occurs. The FBI agent begins to see some humanity in this monster. She needs him, but she needs to trust him first. There are the scenes with the mask and the biting off of noses and other violence, but these show that he is in many ways a cunning beast. He is also a genius. As the profiling goes on, more and more layers of the mystery are cleared and the quarry knows the quarry. Hannibal Lecter is a celebrity brutalizer, and, of course, a cannibal. Hopkins knows few peers in contemporary cinema. His films are almost always worth the time. I doubt if he has ever created anyone like this before.