For once, the Academy wasn't entirely inaccurate!

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2000)

When most novels-- the ones worth reading, at least-- are converted into films, the results are, in most instances, vastly inferior; on rare occasions, the movie adaptations equal or even surpass the creative impact of their written forms.
_The Silence of the Lambs_ is one such film. Though it is quite different from Thomas Harris' widely revered novel-- and I will refrain from elaborating upon these differences because everyone should, at some point, sit down and read Harris' finest work-- the film is no less an artistic triumph.
The strength of _The Silence of the Lambs_ is in the tense interplay between Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling and Sir Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lechter. The rapport between their characters is both riveting and bone-chilling in its intensity, and the thought of lesser actors tackling such scenes is perhaps as frightening as any of this masterful film's horror. Their performances are the driving force behind the film.
Jonathan Demme's direction is also first-rate. Though the score is occasionally too obvious and overpowering, his decisions-- from sweeping camera pans to tightly framed close-ups-- are generally wise, and they give the film the uncomfortable atmosphere needed to create the dramatic tension that sustains the viewer's interest through to the movie's unsettling climactic scenes.
Easily one of the best films of the 1990s, a decade characterized by extravagance, _The Silence of the Lambs_ is sufficiently daring, while managing a certain restraint within all of its elements-- the intelligently-composed screenplay, Demme's direction, and the ensemble acting-- that allows it to transcend to an artistic level far above most every other film of the past ten years.
RATING: 10 out of 10. It's not entirely perfect, but _The Silence of the Lambs_, with its unrivaled intensity and passion, epitomizes the psychological thriller genre. A decade from now, it will be considered a "canonical" film with the likes of _Citizen Kane_ and _To Kill a Mockingbird_.