Red Dragon Cinema

Paul Greenwood reviews

Red Dragon

• Cert:
• Running time: 121 minutes
• Year: 2002
• Released: 11th October 2002
• Widescreen Ratio: 2.35:1
• Rating: 8/10

Director:

Brett Ratner

(The Family Man, Red Dragon, Rush Hour 1 & 2)

Cast:

Hannibal Lecter: Anthony Hopkins
Will Graham: Edward Norton
Francis Dollarhyde: Ralph Fiennes
Jack Crawford: Harvey Keitel
Reba McClane: Emily Watson
Molly Graham: Mary-Louise Parker
Freddy Lounds: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Dr. Frederick Chilton: Anthony Heald
Lloyd Bowman: Ken Leung
Nurse Barney Matthews: Frankie Faison

There’s just no pleasing me sometimes.Here I’ve been crying out for a filmto deliver a climax a little out of the ordinary – no spoilers ahead by theway, so read on – and just when I thought I might finally be getting onehere, I was ready to call the convention police and ask them where myformulaic ending had gone. Thankfully, and without giving anything away,the usual genre standards turn up present and correct to remind me there’sa time and a place for spontaneity.

That’s not too say Red Dragon is a let down – far from it. It’s a tight,efficient serial thriller that manages to simultaneously freshen up atiring franchise while providing plenty self-referential in jokes withoutresorting to the camp theatrics that so blightedHannibal.It’s also far enough removed from the cold sterility ofManhunterto warrant its position as a true prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, ratherthan just a cynical cash in.

In a delicious prologue, everyone’s favourite urbane cannibal, Dr. HannibalLecter, serves his latest victim to his unsuspecting dinner guests. FBIagent Will Graham arrives at his house to discuss the murder inquiry therenowned psychiatrist is helping him with, only to find Lecter himself isthe killer and head chef. A short scuffle later and Hannibal is behind barsand Graham has retired from the FBI. Fast forward several years and Grahamlives quietly with his family in the Florida sunshine. But the Feds needhis skills – a killer dubbed The Tooth Fairy is slaughtering entirefamilies and Jack Crawford comes to Graham for help in building a profile.

Graham, you see, has an almost preternatural ability to get inside theminds of the killers, an ability that has helped him solve many cases,including the foiling of Lecter. But he soon realises that to catch TheTooth Fairy he’ll need to seek out Lecter’s help, and this will be by nomeans straightforward.

---

The relationship between Lecter and Graham is startlingly different fromthat between Lecter and Starling. Whereas Starling interested Lecter to thepoint where he was as good as in love with her, he would happily killGraham and his family in an instant. This point is brought home to us inchilling fashion and we realise Hannibal is not the cuddly fop of Scott’smisguided effort, but a cold calculating monster capable of unspeakableevil.

In portraying this, Hopkins is almost as good as he was in Lambs – deeplymenacing but still viciously humorous, his Lecter will endure as acinematic icon. Equally successful is the leftfield casting of Fiennes asFrancis Dollarhyde, The Tooth Fairy. His character is given much more depththan your usual bad guy, with a large portion of the movie given to histouching relationship with his blind colleague, Reba. The always impressiveKeitel and the why-isn’t-he-a-star-yet Hoffman are just the icing on thecake.

If you’re a Manhunter snob, you’re probably already pooh-poohing RedDragon. But if you liked Lambs and are looking for a thick slice of Gothicfun, you really should give this a go.

Review copyright © Paul Greenwood, 2002.E-mail Paul Greenwood

[Up to the top of this page]