Philip Seymour Hoffman: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. Freddy Lounds - Red Dragon

The law of diminishing returns is very much in effect throughout the Hannibal movies. Setting aside the massively underrated Manhunter (which saw Brian Cox play the celebrity cannibal), the trilogy of films which saw Anthony Hopkins play the enigmatic Dr Lecter started off incredibly strong, with the rightfully Oscar-worth Silence Of The Lambs. Director Jonathan Demme and star Jodie Foster went onto other things, and the space was filled by the usually-dependable Ridley Scott and Julianne Moore for Hannibal, which was schlocky and cheap in every way the first film wasn't. Things really went off the boil with the third film, however, as the vacant director's seat was taken up by Brett Ratner, the guy who had previously helmed the Rush Hour films and done nothing that would recommend him for a serious, thoughtful psychological thriller. Which is probably why Red Dragon was anything but a serious, thoughtful psychological thriller, despite an able cast which included Hopkins returning as Hannibal, Ralph Fiennes as a terrifying serial killer, and €“ oh yeah €“ Philip Seymour Hoffman as one of the so-called Tooth Fairy's victims. Hoffman plays Freddy Lounds, a tabloid reporter who follows Edward Norton's FBI agent around, hoping for a scoop in the Tooth Fairy story. In the end he becomes part of the story himself as Fiennes glues him to an antique wheelchair, bites off his lips and then sets him on fire outside his newspaper's offices. All the time Hoffman is totally phoning his performance in, as his "oh god"s whilst being tortured by a sadistic serial killer sound about as believable as a sex line operator.