I have not seen "Manhenter" and so cannot compare "Lambs" to it. Nevertheless your comments are quite good, and I concur with them heartily, especially with your point that "one half expects, in the end, that [Clarice] will join [Lecter] in the Caribbean." I thought Hopkins' Lecter was good, yes; but he was essentially Hopkins through and through, and this made it quite difficult to imagine the man much of a human flesh eater, even after all the stock tactics used to build him up. He seemed more a typical fellow who, though angry from his treatment while imprisoned, happens to enjoy an occasional human steak dinner.
Jodie Foster's Screaming Lamb demon also challenged credulity. The sight of a slaughtering is perhaps a bit much for many children, to be sure. But I hardly think it enough to fuel a demon that would press upon a girl into adulthood, even fueling her desire to nail psychopaths. The close up of the tortured otherworldly gaze of remembrance is overused in the film, and Clarice is something of a stock character-- the young aspiring female who, amidst daunting masculine power is capable of "keeping up with the best of them."
There were several technical matters that I found unacceptable, such as how the psycho, instead of simply pulling the trigger on the gun and being done with it, instead slowly (and dramatically) cocked the gun with his thumb, giving himself away by the gun's click. Also, the lights strangely come on for no reason after the psycho is dead.
I would give the film no more than a 5. At best, it was average. |
