First and foremost, this is movie that has dated very quickly (although not that quickly I suppose......it is 20 years old.) The synthesiser music, pastel walls and general Miami Vice/Magnum PI feel are by 2007 starting to look less dated and more period which is fine.
William L Petersen gives a fine, understated performance as Will Graham, and Brian Cox is merely OK as Hannibal Lektor. I think the problem is he's just not scary enough. It's as if Cox is pretending to be a psychopath rather than acting one for a movie. In real life I'm sure serial killers behave the way he does in prison, i.e. mostly they appear to be normal ordinary people. However, a movie is meant to entertain and sometimes caricatures are necessary, which is why Anthony Hopkins is so effective is Silence of the Lambs. The upshot of this is that when Will Graham runs from the facility after speaking to Lektor, the audience can't really appreciate why, especially since Lektor is locked up very securely.
Tom Noonan is extremely effective as the Tooth Fairy, producing just the right level of menace, looking suitably weird.
One particularly striking part of the movie for me was when Graham is on the plane and falls asleep and the photos of the murder scenes spill. A little girl sees them and is frightened half to death.Soemething similar happened to me when I was young, looking through a book on murders that I wasn't old enough to be looking through.
This is a good film which you should watch if you get the chance.
William L Petersen gives a fine, understated performance as Will Graham, and Brian Cox is merely OK as Hannibal Lektor. I think the problem is he's just not scary enough. It's as if Cox is pretending to be a psychopath rather than acting one for a movie. In real life I'm sure serial killers behave the way he does in prison, i.e. mostly they appear to be normal ordinary people. However, a movie is meant to entertain and sometimes caricatures are necessary, which is why Anthony Hopkins is so effective is Silence of the Lambs. The upshot of this is that when Will Graham runs from the facility after speaking to Lektor, the audience can't really appreciate why, especially since Lektor is locked up very securely.
Tom Noonan is extremely effective as the Tooth Fairy, producing just the right level of menace, looking suitably weird.
One particularly striking part of the movie for me was when Graham is on the plane and falls asleep and the photos of the murder scenes spill. A little girl sees them and is frightened half to death.Soemething similar happened to me when I was young, looking through a book on murders that I wasn't old enough to be looking through.
This is a good film which you should watch if you get the chance.