Red Dragon (2002)
Grade: B+
Cast: Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Harvey Keitel, Mary-Louise Parker, and Sir Anthony Hopkins
Director: Brett Ratner
Rated R for language, violence, and brief nudity


I would first like to say that I had no insurmountable expectations for this film. People will doubtlessly compare the film to Jonathan Demme's 1991 masterpiece "The Silence of the Lambs," and those comparisons are justified seeing as though this is the prequel to that film; however, "The Silence of the Lambs" is one of the finest motion pictures ever made, and not many films could ever live up to that potentional. It pretty much goes without saying then that "Red Dragon" does not, but that it is and improvement upon the horrifically terrible sequel "Hannibal". (That review is Alex's favorable assessment of the film, mine would not be so kind.)

To say that this film surprised me with the amount of quality it possessed is an understatement. When I first heard that the film was going to be directed by Brett "Rush Hour" Ratner, I thought the franchise was in trouble. With "Hannibal" they had at least gone for a classy director in Ridley Scott, here we get the god of all music video directors. (Well, to himself anyway.)

Ratner did make the mistake of criticizing Michael Mann's original adaptation of this novel, 1986's "Manhunter". How in the world can Brett Ratner tell Michael Mann that he should have used the surprise ending from the novel, or that his film is closer to the text of Thomas Harris' novel? His arrogance only shows up in the pages of Entertainment Weekly as his direction in "Red Dragon" is unsure and clumsy.

In "Red Dragon" we get a glimpse of the life that Hannibal Lecter (Sir Anthony Hopkins) lived before he was imprisoned. A man of unmatched social class and grace, he attended orchestras and entertained dinner guests with the meat of missing humans. He was also a brilliant doctor who helped out in police cases. In this instance, he has been working alongside Special Agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) to track down a serial killer (that just happens to be Lecter). As Graham approaches the confrontation with the villain, he is slashed with a knife, and almost dies. He ends up taking an early retirement and Lecter is sent to jail.

And that's just in the first ten minutes! The rest of the story revolves around the hunt for a serial killer named the Tooth Fairy (Ralph Fiennes) who has murdered two full families and stuffed shards of glass in their eye sockets. Around this time, the Tooth Fairy (or Francis Dolarhyde) begins courting a young blind woman named Reba (Emily Watson) who ultimately gets to close to his secret. Will Graham decides to help out as a freelance investigator, but of course ends up getting more involved and incidentally gets his family involved too. In the tradition of "Silence", he gets help in solving the case from Lecter.

There are obvious symbols here. The fact that Reba is blind, but falling in love with Dolarhyde is meant to say that even though she can't see him or his actions, he actually is a person capable of giving out love in spite of what he endured as a child. Reba's blindness is also a metaphor for the fact that she is completely blind to his actions and who he really is, or can be. The film pretty much hammers this point home to us, and perhaps it may have been more subtle if Watson's eyes had not been pumped with air before filming so that they appear to be orange-sized! Her eyes make her look like a porceleine doll, like the ones taken at the homes of Dolarhyde's victims, and recreated with the glass in the orbital sockets.

Despite reports of the on-set conflict between the cast and their director, none of it shows through in their performances. Sir Hopkins owns the role of Hannibal Lecter and can do no wrong by him. Edward Norton looks too young and fresh for his role, but he brings with him an inherent maturity that actually works. This is his best film since 1999's incredible "Fight Club". Ralph Fienne's nearly steals this whole shebang away from everyone else with his tormented portrayal of the mentally unstable Francis Dolarhyde.

Alas, Fiennes can not overpower the incredible work done here by Emily Watson. Her performance is perhaps the most difficult because she is not able to convey many emotions through her eyes. Her body language and ability to project vulnerability is fabulous. Mary-Louise Parker is terrific in her all-too-small role. Philip Seymour Hoffman is campily over-the-top as a tabloid reporter.

Brett Ratner manages to successfully mimic the tone of Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs", but doesn't succeed in bringing anything new to the table. We've seen movies like this done a bunch of times. Those movies don't have this cast however, and are not adapted for the screen by book-to-screen adaptation god Ted Tally.

Ratner does manage to keep things at a steady level of suspension due to the fact that the grizzly murders are not shown. In "Hannibal," the fundamental problem was that most of the violence was shown (come on, why did we need to see Lecter cut open Ray Liotta's head?!), but Ratner seems to be more selective about the things he shows us. By doing this, there is always a sense of dread and foreboding. The pacing is a bit muddled but never really drags in the way that "Hannibal" did, thanks to Mr. Ratner's fast-paced background in music videos.

For the most part, I would have to say that Mr. Ratner's elegant production is heads above the drawn out "Hannibal" and more akin to "The Silence of the Lambs" in terms of what the director and editor choose to let us see, and the fact that it is able to generate large amounts of suspense. I was skeptical of you Mr. Ratner, and you may have semi-proved yourself, but I think this success has more to do with the cast and your creative team than anything that you did. I'm waiting for something more well-directed and emotionally honest.


-Brian Jones, November 2002