Silly Thriller

Rating: Null/10 (13 October 2000)

Plot-holes abound, in another in an endless stream of silly thrillers, that started in the 80's. This one actually won an Academy Award for Best Picture, over a cinematic masterpiece like Disney's "Beauty and the Beast". The plot has been done before, and with much better results, in Michael Mann's taut, chiller, "Manhunter". This film spends a lot of time pretending to be chilling, but it really is a poorly written piece of fluff. It get so preposterous, that it ends up being not unlike those old movies, where the heroine goes toward the danger with a candle. Jodie Foster's character is so dumb in this film, that she doesn't even HAVE a candle. After an entire film of telling us how smart and with it she is, she does the stupidest things, in the climax of the film. Foster and Hopkins deserved their Oscars, for basically rising above the inane script. They give fine performances. Otherwise, this is an overrated turkey. I never have and never will get what all the fuss was about. See "Manhunter", instead.