Beautifully acted, intriguing and gripping...

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2008)

Rarely ever do i praise a movie, the last movie that i saw which i said i enjoyed was a long time ago , it May of been the 1966 movie Batman, now that comment may seem out of place in a review for a movie such as The Silence of The Lambs, but I'll explain the link, both Batman and The Silence Of the Lambs both do exactly what they should do, they entertain, they grip you, they are well created, and they are molded perfectly.
The Silence Of The Lamb's strongest points do not lie in the direction, which is fantastic, they also don't lie in the deceptively obvious yet clever storyline, they don't even lie in the interesting score or special effects, no, the strongest aspects of this movie are Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, and Clarice Starling , played by Jodie Foster. In this movie, these two amazing actors grip you, they pull you in, and they put you in the movie. Jodie Foster's confident yet fragile character "Clarice" is easily believable and very convincing, to the point were you feel as if she is a real person living through this torment, and she certainly deserves the Oscar she gets in return. And Anthony Hopkins once again stuns and amazes audiences in his role, and deserves every little part of his Oscar as well.
Now I've always been a great fan of Anthony Hopkins, from his performance in The Elephant Man to his performance in red Dragon which uplifted an otherwise fairly weak movie. And this is surely his finest hour, every single word and action in this movie is sinister, frightening and chilling, everything a perfect villain should be. His famous pronunciation of "Clarice" will go down in media history, and his first appearance in the jail cell will be engraved into the mind of every person who see's it for ever. His stance, his glare and his delightfully charming manner all add to this character, and Anthony's performance. He is so convincing in this role that by the end of the movie you actually question his existence yourself, and this is also helped by the brilliantly wrote and presented storyline, which relates this psychotic character to a real life background and real life events. Even though Hannibal isn't the main character in this film, or even the main villain, he certainly steals the show, and the Oscar he earnt was for the shortest ever award-winning performance in film history, spending only about 20 minutes on screen in total, but even this is enough for Anthony Hopkins to portray every aspect of his character.
And as previously mentioned, Jodie Foster's Clarice is also a fascinating performance. Getting such a small actress to take on such a big confident role, and to do it convincingly , was a big risk, but it pays off. Jodie Foster's performance is truly amazing, throughout she promotes a feeling on un-ease and difficulty, however she also gets you rooting behind her, as she ventures ever deeper into the mystery. As i previously said, there are spoilers in the review, and this is one of them, in one of the final scenes were Clarice is chasing down the Maniac and has entered his house and is now trapped in the dark is one of the most 'Edge-of-my-seat' scenes I've ever scene. The brilliant first person views and wonderful change in mood make this scene memorable and one of the movie's real strongest moments, almost creating the traumatized and lost women theme which would go on to back up other movies. And this movie just kept going, which was a good thing, because i generally tend to rate a movie not only on film aspects, but also on how interested it kept me, and this one kept me going till the end.
But as i mentioned, especially in the final scene, the direction of the movie is classic. The shots are often basic yet stimulating, yet occasionally the director uses his creativity and goes all out like a blockbuster should, the camera angles are near perfect and well taken care of throughout, promoting a sense of being in the film, yet not actually experiencing the danger's the characters are facing, such as many of Spielberg's movies.
I have to cut this review short due to the word limit, but i can finally say, go see this movie, it's not Entirely perfect, and that's why it misses out on a 10, it would earn 5 Stars but it can take a while to get going and can often confuse even the most intelligent viewer, which is what stops it from achieving a perfect score, but other that those, it's just too difficult to criticize this film. It deserved all of it's awards and should be seen by everyone, now.