Beyond immorality and immortality, deification of evil, blurring of the demarcating line between human, inhuman and subhuman - these are the ingredients of a main course that has turned into a successful franchise, Hannibal Lecter.
We saw eye to eye with Lecter (it’s curious how he seldom blinks) for the first time more than a decade back in the chilling Silence Of The Lambs. The second instalment - Hannibal - went overboard with its depiction of blood and gore and turned Lecter more into a caricature. Red Dragon - the latest - is based on the book that started it all.
In its essence the story is old hat. An FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) apprehends Lecter and almost loses his life in the process. He quits his job only to come back, albeit reluctantly, when a series of grisly murders baffles the police force.
The film (and the book) gets its name from a series of paintings by the acclaimed English artist William Blake. Red Dragon is Satan. It epitomizes evil. It stands for transformation.
But that is exactly what is missing in the film. It seems to have gotten stuck in the same rut. It hasn’t evolved, hasn’t transformed.
A fire-breathing monstrosity has replaced the death head moth. Will Graham fills up the place of Clarice Starling. It was Buffalo Bill then. It is the Tooth Fairy aka Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes) now. Lecter eats his victims; Dolarhyde bites, maims and kills them.
Anthony Hopkins essays a role that he can perform in his sleep. Emily Watson as the blind Reba McClane is an oft-repeated cliché. Dolarhyde’s efforts at gruesomeness resemble an amateurish effort at becoming the next Lecter. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddy Lounds, the reporter who can go to any extreme for a scoop, is more paparazzi than a paper man. Dante Spinotti, laces the movie with low-key lighting that keeps the audience in the ’dark’ rather than adding a new dimension to the film.
Director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, I and II) has treaded new territory with Red Dragon. But in his effort at not making the film resemble Manhunter (the 1980s adaptation of the same book) he seems to have relied too much on Silence Of The Lambs, rather than lending it his signature.
The result has been a mish-mash that is neither shocking nor revolting or entertaining.