Hannibal Lecter is back. After the huge success of The Silence of the Lambs, and then the bestselling follow-up in Thomas Harris’s novel Hannibal, it was inevitable that a way would be found to bring the cultured psychiatrist serial killer (as played by Anthony Hopkins) to the screen once more. We’ve had Ridley Scott’s rather dull movie of Hannibal, and now we have Red Dragon.
Red Dragon is, in fact, a remake of the first movie in which Hannibal appeared as a character. That was Michael Mann’s Manhunter. It is instructive to compare that movie and the new one. Where Mann’s version is all machismo and minimalism, Red Dragon is baroquely overcooked. It’s not enough that the serial killer (Ralph Fiennes) should have an abusive childhood and a harelip; no, he must also have a huge tattoo covering his back.
Emily Watson does well as the blind girl befriended by the killer, and Edward Norton is fine as the profiler chasing the killer (and consulting Hannibal Lecter when he needs to). Fiennes does as much as could be expected as the villain, and there are several moments in which the tension and fear are satisfyingly ratcheted up. And yet, amazingly, none comes close in depth of feeling or spine-tingling effect to the brief scene in which the blind girl gets to stroke an anaesthetised tiger.
They do say you shouldn’t act with animals, and I’m not counting Hopkins.