Everything with Hopkins is great but otherwise...

Rating: 5/10 (25 August 2018)

Everyone remembers Anthony Hopkins' delicious take on an epicurean monster and they should since its good enough to hold the whole the movie, near enough...
But asides from these startlingly well written little monologues it's remarkable what a bland movie this otherwise is. I have an issue with any narrative that at its centre just follows law enforcement tracking down a killer. It leaves very little room for any meaningful development of either the plot or the characters, no matter what the details of the case, it always treads a familiar path. A big part of a story for me is what motivates the main character but with these kinds of things the answer is "it's their job" and Jodie Foster laying on the Saccharine about a bunch of farm animals only strikes me as a contrived way to humanize a basic, taciturn character type.
The movie is obsessed with suggesting there is some type of spiritual connection between Hannibal and Clarice, but it is entirely an informed attribute.
The whole murder at its centre just feels like an arbitrary McGuffin as an excuse to get Anthony Hopkins out, so I guess I can't blame it.