‘Red Dragon’ a skin crawler

Published 8:04 am Friday, February 22, 2008

I wasn’t going to see “Red Dragon.” In fact, I planned on going out of my way to avoid it. But due to circumstances beyond my control, I found myself sitting in the preview audience for the film on Tuesday night.

As I looked around me, there was an obvious absence of women. I’d say that the audience was composed of roughly 80% guys. And of that 80%, at least half of them could pass for twins; lots of baseball caps, short sleeve shirts, and baggy pants. There were definitely some old geezers like me, but we were in the minority.

Hollywood is famous for gearing their films to the younger male audience and I’d say they really scored with the drawing power of Hannibal Lecter’s name. Will it stick to the wall and earn them big bucks? Time will tell.

“Red Dragon” is actually the first in the series of Hannibal Lecter stories and it’s less his story than it is the story of a twisted man, who becomes known as “The Tooth Fairy” for reasons you’ll just have to find out for yourself. No kindly kiddies’ friend, this fiend has broken into two houses, one lunar moon apart and murdered the families who lived there.

Former FBI profiler Will Graham (Edward Norton) is reluctantly pulled back into service by his boss Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel) because of his uncanny ability to see into the minds of murderers. But Graham can’t do it by himself. He has to call on the help of his old friend Hannibal and that’s where the fun begins.

Like the last installment of this series, “Hannibal” this film isn’t particularly scary. For me, that’s good news. How will that play with audiences? They may find it a little tame.

There is enough gore and flesh eating to make your skin crawl and the pictures of the murder scenes when contrasted with the videos of the murdered families while they were still happy and alive may wrench your heart a time or two.

But what I found most compelling about this film was the performances. Norton as the battered Will Graham is a very sympathetic character and it’s his on-screen power that really carries this film. Anthony Hopkins as Lecter seems to have regained his ability to make this character both creepy and charming, something that was missing for me in “Hannibal.”

Equally compelling is Ralph Fiennes. I don’t want to give too much away about the story, but I will say that the look of his character is startling and Fiennes’ delivery, which I often find melodramatic, is intense but tempered.

Emily Watson as the blind woman who doesn’t have a clue what she’s getting into is totally delightful and plays the damsel in distress with an authenticity that is leaves you with legitimate respect for both the character and the actress. Philip Seymour Hoffman as the tabloid reporter who tells one too many lies is dead on in his portrayal of someone who is regrets his lack of integrity…a little too late.

Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour 2,” “The Family Man”) seems like an odd choice for directing this film. But I’d have to say he used the power of his performers well. The film owes a lot to the script by Ted Tally who won an Academy Award for in 1992 for the screenplay, “Silence of the Lambs.”

This is not a film for kids. It’s not a film for the squeamish. But if you’re a little chicken like me, you’ll get through it just fine and the good performances are worth watching.