Remembering cinema’s most charming rom-com: The Silence Of The Lambs

Of course, you have to cut out Buffalo Bill and a whole bunch of people being eaten, but much of the set-up of the original movie works perfectly here. Jodie Foster’s a spunky ingenue tasked with her biggest challenge, getting into the mind of a grumpy, almost avuncular figure who seems to see through her polished exterior to the real woman underneath. Despite all the odds, professional and personal, the two break through to a new understanding of each other—and themselves. It almost works as an alternate reading of the film, like one of those “describe a movie poorly” jokes making the round lately.

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That one of the greatest monsters in cinematic history could just as easily be a lovable curmudgeon played by Hugh Grant probably says something trenchant about the way Hollywood packages its conventional male-female romantic stories. But it also underlines just how devastatingly subversive The Silence Of The Lambs still is.