Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.
Jonathan Demme's thriller is artful pulp -- tabloid material treated with intelligence and care and a weird kind of sensitivity.
– Terrence Rafferty,
New Yorker,
12 Aug 2013
rotten:
It's a gnarled, brutal, highly manipulative film that, at its center, seems morally indefensible.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Tribune,
12 Aug 2013
fresh:
Demme comes at Harris' material from another angle: His movie may deal with madness, but his perspective is mercifully sane.
– Jay Boyar,
Orlando Sentinel,
12 Aug 2013
fresh:
Hopkins' cumulative screen image is one of civility and decency, and the association adds to the withering, macabre effect of his murderer. It is a remarkably lucid portrait of lunacy.
– Desmond Ryan,
Philadelphia Inquirer,
12 Aug 2013
fresh:
Jonathan Demme's hypnotic adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel has a seriousness and intensity that's been entirely lacking in horror movies lately.