Join an Old Friend for Dinner

Rating: 9/10 (18 November 2008)

The FBI thriller to end all FBI thrillers.
We can probably thank "The Silence of the Lambs" for the plethora of CSI shows bombarding our T.V. screens today, but don't hold that against it. This is one of those films that I never tire of seeing, and I can't come across it on cable without stopping whatever it is I'm doing to watch it.
"Lambs" came out of nowhere in 1991 as the big film of the year, and the fact that it won the top five Academy Awards has given it prestige. But to look back, it's amazing that this film was taken seriously enough to win big. It's brutal, violent and traffics in all manner of psychopathic nastiness, from cannibalism to sexual deviation. Jonathan Demme's direction is tight but by-the-book -- it's first and foremost a plot driven movie. But the film's ace card is the performance by Anthony Hopkins, who chose to play Hannibal Lecter as a suave and polite Englishman rather than a raving lunatic. His scenes with Jodie Foster, as FBI trainee Clarice Starling, are mesmerizing, and it was a brilliant choice on the part of the screenwriter (and this probably came from the book, though I haven't read it) to make the film, under its grisly surface, essentially about a love story.
Foster's performance doesn't hold up well all these years later. She's mannered and unconvincing, especially later in the film as her character becomes more frantic. But Hopkins' creation remains one of the most memorable ever committed to the screen.
Grade: A