An incredibly thrilling movie

Rating: 9/10 (3 September 2006)

If The Silence of the Lambs had been about Clarice chasing after Buffalo Bill, the movie would have been boring, and would have gone on a list filled with every other average thriller ever made. If The Silence of the Lambs had simply been about Clarice and Hannibal, we would've been deprived one of the most thrilling sequences ever put to film. All three of the characters- Clarice, Hannibal, and Buffalo Bill- are essential to why this movie is so good.
The movie works effectively as a thriller in Clarice's chase of Buffalo Bill, there's no doubt about that. But the added dynamic of Hannibal probing into Clarice's psyche makes it so much better. When Clarice (Jodie Foster) is sent to Hannibal Lecter's (Anthony Hopkins) cell to learn from him and get information on the serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), she is told not to give Dr. Lecter any personal information. He is a former psychiatrist who ate his victims, and he can deduce volumes about a person just by looking at her. Clarice, in an attempt to gain his trust, does give him personal information. I wouldn't call this a mistake, even though she went against her supervisor's advice, because she does gain his trust, and in the process, we learn more about Lecter and Clarice than we could've otherwise.
A plot summary would have you believe that the story of this movie is Clarice's search for Buffalo Bill through Lecter, but the real story lies in how Lecter reveals information about Bill to Clarice and what we learn about the two of them in the process. A lesser movie would have depended on action and violence to tell this story- and make no mistake, there is definitely violence in this movie. But the brilliance of The Silence of the Lambs is that it depends on character to tell its story.
And thank God for Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins being in it to make those characters. Jodie Foster plays a woman in a man's world, and she conveys the awkwardness and defiant streak that this brings out in her. There are moments where she plays the sycophant to get what she needs from the men around her, and others where she takes charge and we can hear the self-consciousness in her voice. Hopkins plays a creature that also happens to be human. He plays Lecter creepily, of course, and he pulls that aspect off quite well; but there is more to Lecter than just being creepy- he is also brilliant, and he has desires just like any other human being. Hopkins makes this noticeable. Ted Levine has less of a chance to show his chops, but what we do see of him is compelling and unsettling- he makes a wonderful villain.
This is one of my favorite movies, now that I've finally seen it. It deserves it's place as one of the top movies of all time because it exceeds all expectations of what it's kind of movie should be, and in the process it surpasses great movies of more dependable genres.