JODIE FOSTER as Clarice Starling in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

JODIE FOSTER

JODIE FOSTER as Clarice Starling in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

The superbly crafted suspense thriller that director Jonathan Demme has made from Thomas Harris's taut best-selling novel The Silence of the Lambs slams you like a sudden blast of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror. Clarice Starling, played with heartfelt tenacity by Jodie Foster, is an FBI trainee on the trail of a serial killer. Her search ends in the suburban home of dressmaker Jame Gumb.

Foster's Clarice is not only an orphan but a disadvantaged backwoods girl who has worked hard to get where she is, and has less self-confidence than she pretends. Noticing the nail polish on one of Bills' victims, she guesses that the girl is from "town," a word used only by someone who is not. Her bravest moment may come when she orders the gawking sheriff's deputies out of the room at the funeral home ("Listen here now!"). Her voice shakes – quivers – as she takes a stand. This is some major acting going on. Thoughtful and complex is this Starling. First considered for the role was too sexy Michelle Phieffer – Foster turns this role into herself and transcends past any physical attraction that Hannibal may have first had to her – But keeps them spiritually bound – a deeper connected due to Ms Foster’s performance. People get all excited talking about Anthony Hopkins as Lecter and it’s an outstanding achievement but doesn’t come close to the what happening inside the movies heroine.

The first confrontation scene between Lecter and Starling is the real heart of the picture, and Hopkins and Foster play that first meeting with perfect connectedness. Not an easy feat, and as it turns out one of the best sparrings ever. Jodie Foster is flawless. Right on the heels of her Oscar-winning work in The Accused – Hopkins and Foster play off each other with enormous skill. Demme subjects them to long, searching close-ups. With lesser actors, such scrutiny could wreck the film by exposing theatricality and cant. But Foster and Hopkins don't make a false move. Starling knows Lecter is testing her, trying to wear down her self-confidence.

Ms. Foster provides an expert counterpoint for her co-star's psychotic manipulations. She refuses to play victimized fly to his predatory spider, but she feels the terrifying brush of his web-spinning all the same. Every choice she makes is just right -- from the throaty twang of her West Virginia accent to the low-key intensity with which she goes about doing her job. She's tentative yet tenacious, vulnerable yet rock-solid.

The ending is a great piece of film making and superbly shot and sound effects frightening but without Jodie Foster building up the tension just right and terrified and frightened to the core. The film would have never hit the high crescendo peaks it did without her. Starling sizes him up and reads the situation before she shouts "Freeze!". We are frightened both because of the film's clever manipulation of story and image, and for better reasons--we like Clarice, identify with her and fear for her.

Beyond terror, when Clarice follows Jame Gumb into his basement, it mixes her frightened panting with the sound of Bill's heavy breathing and the screams of the captive girl--and then adds the dog's frenzied barking, which psychologically works at a deeper level than everything else. I remember people running up the aisle – hyperventilating themselves – panic strickened movie goers watched from the lobby. Then it adds those green goggles so he can see her in the dark.

She’s a female warrior. You can feel her pride in Starling for rallying against her male demons. For all the unbridled savagery on display, what is shrewd, significant and finally hopeful about Silence of the Lambs is the way she plays being mercilessly scared and mercifully humane at the same time. The film belongs to Jodie Foster as FBI trainee Clarice. She is a thinker on screen – ‘Courage’ personified – She seems to have a depth and loneliness that reaches to the heart of the viewer. As in CONTACT during those final moments before reaching her father or in THE ACCUSED when telling off her attorney at the dinner party. So difficult to play a someone searching for answers – she ends up personifying drive and intelligence as well as experiencing the real fear and the bravery to overcome it. It’s the kind of ability few actors can achieve and is the stuff legendary films are made of.

She ‘ate’ this one up – well done Jodie!