Grade:  B

Director:  Brett Ratner		Released:  October 2002
Writer:  Ted Tally, from Thomas Harris' novel		MPAA Rating:  R
Players:  Edward Norton, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes		Running time:  124 minutes

Ratings System

Red Dragon is a faithful adaptation of the novel, with an extra dollop of Hannibal Lecter added for your viewing pleasure.  Overall, I get a good feeling from this film.  It's nicely paced, and a surprise or two await viewers who aren't familiar with the book.

The opening sequence is handled well.  It introduces us to Will Graham, re-introduces us to Hannibal, and shows us the pre-existing relationship between them.  That relationship is crucial to the other developments in the story.  There's another relationship that should have been important, but was turned into a plot device.  That being the relationship between Graham and his wife.  Sadly, she only appears in the movie when the plot requires her to be in danger (Will didn't make one phone call home?).

In contrast to the film's opening, there is the film's ending.  The final scene is a quickie add-on to tie the film to The Silence of the Lambs.  It's cute, but unnecessary.

The source material is so good it would be hard to screw up this movie.  So it's very nice, but probably not as good as it could have been.

- crocoPuffs