Intense, gruesome and complex but a tad overrated horror/thriller.

Rating: 10/10 (21 March 2003)

The film that began the world famous Hannibal Lector character is a very good one indeed. But I don't think that it lives up to the full quantity of its hype. The two leads deserved the Oscars they won back in 1991 but I don't think that the film deserved any more than that.

Nonetheless, the quality of acting from these two leads is outstanding. At 28 she was already an accomplished actress so Jodie Foster perfectly captures the role of hesitantly determined detective Clarice Starling. It's hard to believe that the Hannibal Lector part was offered to so many other actors before Anthony Hopkins was rightfully offered the role. He creates one of the most memorable movie characters of the 20th Century and is brilliant for the part.
It's a shame that the same can't be said about the rest of the performances. Ted Levine, one of the most overlooked actors in the past 20 years, never receives any conviction in his role, offers us no motive, and is just plain dull in his part. No background is offered to his character and is much inferior to Ralph Fiennes character in the recently made prequel, `Red Dragon'. Scott Glenn soon gave up `the method' after he proved to be a dud. Apparently, he sat in a room for hours everyday listening to the sounds of killers torturing their victims, so he could prepare for the role. Too bad that what we see on screen is something less professional.

One thing that the film does succeed in doing is intensifying scenes so as you don't know what will happen next. It gets gratuitously visceral in some scenes to try and be humane, but just looks gruesome and unattractive. While the story is complex and the film ends so as most people will be satisfied, I didn't see much else of `sheer brilliance' about it.

Maybe it's just me or maybe this is a needlessly overrated film. But still, `The Silence of the Lambs' is a very good horror/thriller that well outshines its disastrous sequel `Hannibal'. 7.5/10.