Wonderfully Chilling

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2008)

Anthony Hopkins gives the performance of his career in this suspenseful thriller as the cannibalistic Hannibal Lecter. It is, in a manner of speaking, Hopkins' film, a character study on his behalf. Any fraction of second with him on screen is electrifying. His manipulation, deception and fleeting seconds of violence are all so brutally portrayed; Hopkins' succeeds in creating what surely must be one of Cinema's finest villains. Jodie Foster does her 'I'm a bit damaged' thing and personally, I don't think this is one of her best performances, perhaps because she is so thoroughly upstaged throughout. Ted Levine manages to shine as the woman-skinning serial killer known only as Buffalo Bill. There are sequences where the script verges on being slightly hammy, but its raw impact and consistent tension always gets the better of it. What's so brilliant about this film is it's claustrophobia. The sense that, even from behind bars (or glass, as the case may be) Lecter manages to have people wrapped around his fingers, is far more terrifying than if you gave him a knife and fork and stuck an apple in your mouth. You don't quite get the feeling that Starling is anywhere close to being a match for Lecter, and perhaps if she had given him just a bit more of a run for his money, it could have been slightly more exciting. Then again, perhaps the most numbing thing about Silence of the Lambs is how easy it is for a monster to have his way with the world.