Red Dragon Roars Into Theaters

Again, I say, it's all about expectations. Standing in line for popcorn before my recent preview of Red Dragon, the well-made prequel to The Silence of the Lambs," I listened as more than a few people walked by already gushing over the film. They said things like: "This is going to be as good as the original!" and "Aw, man. This looks scary as %*#!"

I felt bad for them. But even more than that, I felt detached from them (Jeez, that sounded a little like the beginnings of a serial-killer rant, didn't it? Stay with me please.) Lofty expectations are absolutely killing big Hollywood movies today. I no longer go in looking for the next Star Wars or Austin Powers or even Hannibal Lecter films to be as good as the originals. They are different movies altogether. Next year's Matrix and Terminator flicks? I'll see 'em. I'll be right there near the front of the line. But all I'll really hope for is that they don't mess up what has come before.

I only want good storytelling and good filmmaking. On that level, I am very pleased to report that Red Dragon is a splendid success. Is it Lambs? Nope. Not even close. Keep the cork in the chianti and the cover over the fava beans. But Red Dragon IS much closer to Jonathan Demme's now-classic 1991 thriller than last year's well-dressed gross out extravaganza, Hannibal, ever was. It has a similar tone and a similar style, and I believe Red Dragon will make a fine companion piece next to The Silence of the Lambs on the DVD shelf one day.

Red Dragon, directed by Brett Ratner, begins with a terrific opening sequence showing Hannibal Lecter (again played by Anthony Hopkins) before he was captured by Edward Norton's intrepid FBI agent Will Graham. Flash forward several years later, and we see Graham retired from the Bureau after suffering both physical and psychological scars from his tangle with Lecter. Will lives the quiet life in Florida with his wife, Molly (Mary Louise Parker), and their young son. But his old FBI boss, Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel), presses him back into service for one more case. This time, the hunt is on for a particularly malevolent serial killer known as "The Tooth Fairy," who slaughters entire families in their homes and is especially brutal towards the mothers.

Will Graham has a gift for being able to look at clues in different ways than most investigators. He can ascertain things like emotions and feelings from the way blood splatters on walls or victims are positioned after being killed. But the Tooth Fairy is elusive, and soon Will finds himself once again seeking the counsel of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, now locked up in that Gothic-looking cell Clarice Starling found him in The Silence of the Lambs. The dynamic is different, though. Will is no rookie. He is not female. And Lecter both admires and hates him. When the Tooth Fairy finds out who is now on his trail, he begins a correspondence with Lecter that may or may not end up with the Graham family as the next targets of his wrath.

Good stuff, huh? Oh yeah. Red Dragon has menace out the wazoo. How can it not with Hannibal the Cannibal part of the story? It's still a kick to see Hopkins in the role, too, as he comes up with some deliciously evil moments and lines this time out. My favorite sequence is the one where Will has come to interrogate Lecter in the insane asylum's gymnasium. Lecter is given a half-hour each week in the gym for exercise, but is strapped into a harness of sorts that is attached to the ceiling. As long as Will stays outside a red circle painted on the gym's floor, he's safe. Ratner plays with the audience throughout the scene, right up until the moment when Lecter unexpectedly says, "Have you ever felt the sudden rush of fear?"

For Lambs fans, Ratner offers up a number of welcome tips of the hat to the multiple Oscar winner from '91, especially the movie's masterstroke of a final scene. Anthony Heald returns as Dr. Chilton, whose back-and-forths with Lecter in this film are given extra edge if you recall that he is the "old friend" that Hannibal is going to "have for dinner" at the end of Lambs. Frankie Faison is also in the film as Barney, the orderly who wheels Lecter around the asylum in "Lambs" and then tried to sell Lecter artifacts in last year's "Hannibal."

Ratner also throws in several nice touches for pop-culture nerds such as myself. Early in the film, Lecter attends a performance of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Look closely and you'll see the conductor is film and TV composer Lalo Schifrin, who scored Ratner's Rush Hour flicks and is most famous for writing the theme to Mission: Impossible. Star Trek fans will also enjoy seeing Elizabeth Dennehy as a member of Graham's FBI investigation team. Dennehy played the ambitious Commander Shelby on the classic two-part Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Best of Both Worlds," in which Captain Picard was transformed into a member of the Borg.

So, what's missing from Red Dragon? Well, aside from the fact that the Thomas Harris book Red Dragon was already made into a film called Manhunter in 1986, the story is pretty conventional at its core. Norton is fine as Will Graham, but we've seen this kind of character--the tortured investigator pressed back into service to solve just one more case--countless times before. "The Tooth Fairy," meanwhile, is presented as a kind of devil-worshiping Norman Bates crossed with Harvey "Two-Face" Dent from the Batman comics. As played by Ralph Fiennes, I liked how the killer (real name: Francis Dolarhyde) was at war with himself, especially after meeting a pretty, blind woman (Emily Watson) who can see beyond his small facial disfigurement. But I was expecting to be a bit more scared of him or even repulsed. Fiennes was just fine in the role, but he doesn't really get in our heads.

The thing that has always stayed with me from The Silence of the Lambs was how odd Buffalo Bill, the main killer, was. How creepy his home was, his look, his speech patterns, his little dog. That dance he did naked in front of the mirror. The vicious, yet strangely artistic ways he would murder and leave his victims. That was one sick puppy! Dolarhyde is more of a tortured soul, and the audience is practically invited to love the sinner and hate his sins. Screw that.

But the trump card in all this is getting to see Anthony Hopkins playing the role that won him an Oscar. Hopkins' Lecter is still a force to be reckoned with due to his powerful mind, his quick wit, and his obscene thirst for and indifference to bloody death.

A part of me wishes that Hopkins would now win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the same role he won Best Actor eleven years ago. I think Lecter would find that part of me quite delicious.

Red Dragon is rated R for violence, language, partial nudity, and exceedingly disturbing images and sequences.
The Tooth Fairy likes to cut his victims eyes out and replace them with mirror shards.