As thrillers go, Red Dragon isn’t bad at all. It may not be in the same league as 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs—a film it tries very hard to look and feel like—but it does maintain some of the same mood of tense dread. Too bad it’s also the least essential thriller remake since Gus Van Sant’s ill-advised 1998 revision of Psycho.
The resemblance to Silence is no coincidence. Aside from Anthony Hopkins, once again reprising his signature role as psycho psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter, the films share two writers: novelist Thomas Harris and screenwriter Ted Tally. Written by Harris before Hannibal and The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon introduced us to a certain psychopathic genius, albeit in a minor role. Not surprisingly, Tally’s script beefs up Lecter’s presence, mainly so Hopkins can chew up dimly lit scenery like so much liver and fava beans (although his performance here is more restrained than the grandiose self-parody it was in last year’s Hannibal.)
Even the plots are alike in a lot of ways. Red Dragon centres on ex-FBI agent Will Graham (a strangely unconvincing Edward Norton), the brilliant investigator whose apprehension of Lecter drove him a little insane and ended his career—and nearly his life. Cajoled out of early retirement to help catch a particularly nasty serial killer called the Tooth Fairy (a somewhat buffed-up Ralph Fiennes), Graham finds himself forced to consult the not-so-good doctor for insights into the case (delivered, as usual, in the form of cryptic advice and funny/sinister one-liners).
Much of the film’s effectiveness comes from Harris’s ability to write genuinely creepy psycho killers. Like Silence’s Buffalo Bill, the Tooth Fairy clearly has issues. He’s the kind of guy who stalks around his house naked and has agonized arguments with himself whenever he’s not slaughtering entire families and jamming shards of mirrors in their eyes. His other distinguishing characteristics are a cleft palate scar, and a tattoo of the Red Dragon from Blake’s famous painting that covers his entire back—which would actually be sort of cool if he didn’t think he was becoming the dragon. (Fiennes brings an element of pathos to the character that makes him a lot more frighteningly real than Hopkins’ suave, superhuman Lecter.)
Director Brett Ratner does a fair imitation of Jonathan Demme’s Silence style, but Demme isn’t his biggest competition. Red Dragon was also adapted in 1986 by Michael Mann, then at the height of his Miami Vice period, and Mann’s Manhunter is more stylish, more atmospheric and better cast (especially William Petersen’s Will Graham and Tom Noonan’s truly weird-looking Tooth Fairy). Put them side by side, and it’s easy to see that the update owes its existence to little more than the popularity of Hopkins’ lip-smacking antics. See the Ratner version by all means, but follow it up by renting the Mann version if you want to see the difference between a not-bad thriller and a very good one.
(3/4)