What everyone thinks: Hannibal makes the movie. As the overarching element of the series inspired by Thomas Harris' novels is the culinarily gifted doctor, it'd be easy to assume Anthony Hopkins' psychopath Hannibal was the glue that holds The Silence Of The Lambs. The main plot deals with the hunt for Buffalo Bill who keeps kidnapping young girls to build himself a woman suit, but it was Hopkins' performance that caught imaginations; Hannibal enters the plot as a psychiatric advisor to Clarice Starling and uses the wider plot to engineer his escape. He'd go on to have three more cinematic outings as a protagonist, with Hopkins returning for the first two. The real reason it's good: It works because Lecter is limited. Like fine cuisine, if we had too much Hannibal it'd end up not as delectable. Despite winning the Oscar for Best Actor (lead, not supporting) Hopkins only appears on screen for less than twenty minutes, highlighting how much else the film gets right to deserve its praise. Jonathan Demme not only got the material, but had the sense to reign back Hopkins in the role lest it fall into comedy. Compare Manhunter, the Brian Cox starring adaptation of Red Dragon, to Brett Ratner's version which brings Hopkins back. The former has Lecktor (as it was spelt) appear only at select moments, not only allowing more time with Will Graham, but making the character even more unnerving. Ratner's take includes a lot more Hannibal and the character begins to feel annoyingly overplayed.
