Manhunter (1986)

Will Graham (William Petersen) is a retired FBI profiler, coaxed (or manipulated) out of retirement by a fed buddy (Dennis Farina) to help catch the "Tooth Fairy" killer. The longer the case goes, the more involved Graham becomes, setting himself (and a tabloid reporter) up as targets, and consulting with an old acquaintance, Hannibal Lecktor (Brian Cox.)

I did not realize going in this was an earlier adaptation of the same book as the Ed Norton/Ralph Fiennes Red Dragon. I guess it doesn't make much difference; I've never watched Red Dragon, and I've only seen scattered bits of Silence of the Lambs, so at least I'm not really comparing it to anything.

Cox seems fine as Lektor; there are places where he seems more relaxed, or maybe casual, than I envision Lektor. A part during his face-to-face with Graham where he's in bed with his feet up on the wall in particular, caught my attention. It's not bad, it simply didn't match my impression of the character. And later we get additional context where it makes more sense, that Lektor knows things Graham doesn't, that he's enjoying this for more reasons than we suspect initially.

Petersen's approach to his character, I don't get as much. The talking to himself as he wanders the crime scene, which usually turns to him cursing the unknown killer, calling him a son of a bitch, that I get. He's getting too invested. His promise to just examine evidence is falling to pieces. The part late, where he blows up at Farina for telling him to accept they won't be able to stop the next killing, that made perfect sense. Farina knew him well enough to know how to suck him in, got what he wanted, put Graham's family in danger, and now he's telling Graham to pull back?

What I was curious about was, after learning that Lektor has not only been in contact with this other killer, but has advised him to kill Graham, and hidden Graham's home address in a message run in the tabloid paper, Graham speaks with Lektor on the phone. And he's not angry. He's not even hostile or frustrated, and it just seemed bizarre. For a guy that seems to get so intense so easily, nothing towards Lektor? The guy is locked up, can only use a phone with no dial pad, and still got your address and passed it to a guy who specifically kills families. I'd be at least a little angry, call him a few names, maybe have all his books taken away and burned in front of him, just to be petty.

The movie (and I don't know if this is consistent with the book, or a choice director Michael Mann made) surprised me with how it handled that move by Lektor. It happened about halfway through the movie, and so I expected the second half was going to be Graham waiting at home for the killer to come to him. Instead, he gets his family moved to a secure location, and the movie continues with Graham trying to figure out the killer's mindset. The killer never makes a move towards Graham, we never even see that he considers it. Which was interesting, and frankly, appreciated.

The whole movie revolves around Graham trying to understand the thinking of the serial killer, about what he's doing to himself trying to anticipate the killer and stop him from hurting anyone else. If you make it so he knows the target already, you lose that element. Now Graham can just sit back and wait for the killer to come to him. So, kudos on not going that route.