Excellent Serial Killer Thriller

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2013)

"Something Wild" director Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs" proved to be a memorable milestone of a movie in both the careers of Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. This serial killer thriller concerns the efforts of an FBI agent in training who proves instrumental in cracking a case that nobody could have solved without her help. The daughter of a small-time cop, Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster of "Taxi Driver") is minding her own business at Quantico, Virginia, negotiating an obstacle course when the FBI Chief of Behavioral Sciences, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn of "Sucker Punch") summons her for an interview. Crawford wants Clarice to visit convicted murderer Dr. Hannibal Lector where he has been imprisoned for eight years. In fact, Lector hasn't laid eyes on a woman for eight years. The warden in charge of Lector's incarnation is a conceited egotist, Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald of "Red Dragon"), who makes a pass at her and fails. Before he allows Clarice to speak with Hannibal, Chilton shows her a photo of what happened to a nurse that Lector gnawed on. The nurse is permanently disfigured as a result of Lector's attack. Lector is now kept in a cell with a reinforced glass window and stone walls. Dr. Chilton is prepared to escort Clarice into Lector's presence, but she convinces him that Lector may clam up at the sight of Chilton. Rudely, Chilton dismisses himself and turns Clarice over to Barney. Barney (Frankie Faison of "Hannibal") provides Clarice with a chair and she and Lector talk briefly. Lector isn't the only unsavory soul in the prison. In what amounts to an infamous death row of sorts, other perverts are housed in the same area. One of them, Miggs, make a derogatory comment to Clarice about her body odor, and Lector later kills Miggs. Meantime, Clarice entices Lector to talk about Buffalo Bill. Bill is a serial killer who has slain five women. These women are a little bigger than the average. In Memphis, we watch as the killer, Jame Gumb (Ted Levine of "Heat") abducts a girl when he is struggling to load a sofa into his van. Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith) backs into the rear of the van and Gumb traps her and takes her to his house. In the basement of his residence, Gumb has a pit where he holds Catherine. Meantime, Lector provides Catherine's mother with information and he is moved to another facility. During his sojourn at the new facility, Lector fakes off the guards, kills them, and manages to escape. Lector's escape is pretty incredible. By this time, Clarice believes that she has found a clue. Crawford warns her that they have found the killer. Clarice continues with her part of the investigation and stumbles onto Gumb living in the residence where she thought she would find somebody else. Clarice narrowly survives a suspenseful moment when Gumb extinguishes the lights and uses night-vision goggles to overpower her. Clarice cannot see but she can hear and she shoots at the sound of a revolver being cocked. She empties her gun into Gumb and he dies. In other words, he doesn't jump up a few moments later. "Silence of the Lambs" concludes with Clarice graduating from the FBI Academy. Well-made, well-acted, "Silence" is top-notch material.