tek's rating:

The Silence of the Lambs (R)
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This came out in 1991, and it was a pretty big deal both financially and critically. Won a bunch of awards and stuff. I've wanted to see it for a long time, but I didn't get around to it until 2012 (twenty-one years later!) Of course, over the years there have been countless references to the movie in other movies and shows, so it felt very familiar by the time I saw it. And I'm glad I finally did; it was a very good movie, but not one I have any interest in ever watching again. Yes, I'd say once is enough. I should also say the movie has a few sequels, or at least one sequel and a couple of prequels. I have no idea if I'll ever see any of those movies, but I doubt it. I should also mention that the movies are all based on a series of books, which I've never read.

Jodie Foster plays an FBI trainee named Clarice Starling, who gets assigned to talk with a prisoner in a maximum security asylum. The prisoner is a former psychiatrist named Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), who had become a killer and a cannibal. Meanwhile, there's a serial killer on the loose who is referred to as "Buffalo Bill" (Ted Levine, whom I knew from Monk, but I didn't recognize him at all in this movie.) Lecter will help Starling solve that case, but at the same time, it seems like he's also plying his former trade on her, getting her to open up about dramatic events from her past. I don't want to reveal any more of the plot, but Lecter's definitely an interesting character. Very intelligent and cultured, but also very scary and dangerous. Starling's a pretty decent character, as well. And... I can't think of anything else to say.

Edit to add: Incidentally, I watched this on a Sunday night, and the very next night, How I Met Your Mother did an episode with a "Silence of the Lambs" theme running through it.


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