Review of Manhunter (1986) by Philip W — 16 Mar 2009

Remade as Red Dragon in 2002, this first venture into the Hannibal Lecter series is actually rather compelling and well-made. Highly stylized cinematography with a very signature Michael Mann look, in this film the director manages to remember that the best thrillers have well-developed characters at their heart to make them successful.

William Peterson's character evolves as he gets mired deeper and deeper into the chase (in particular, I liked the "Profiler" way in which he went from third person to second person to first person when walking through a crime scene as the killer). Joan Allen is practically unrecognizable as the blind woman who is the killer's next victim. And Tom Noonan, an actor I only saw for the first time just last year in Synecdoche, New York, is genuinely unnerving as the serial killer. The film does suffer from a very weak wife role (played by a wambly Kim Griest) as well as a rather dated 80's soundtrack.