Dustin Hoffman was born in August 1937 in Los Angeles, where Hollywood is located, destined to be a movie. Four months later, Anthony Hopkins was born in Port Talbot, Wales, England, and later graduated from the Royal Academy of Drama, a character born for theatre.
Although born in the same year, in two different countries, they are destined to become two masters of the performing arts with very different styles. From "The Graduate" to "The Kramers" to "Rain Man," Dustin Hoffman has created many vivid and disparate little characters on the big screen with his fickle faces. Anthony Hopkins, on the other hand, has performed a series of complex characters such as Hannibal in "The Silence of the Lambs", Van Helsing in "Four Hundred Years of Vampire Zombies", Nixon in "Nixon's Biography" and Anthony in "Father Trapped in Time".
It is very interesting that these two big stars born in the same year have won two Academy Awards for Best Actor and are famous in the world film industry. The former is because of The Kramers and The Rain Man. The latter is because of "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Father Trapped in Time". They are also my favorite movie stars. I will try my best to find their new films, and they will certainly not disappoint me. The most recent is this 2019 release of "Man in the Labyrinth".
It's a suspense thriller that tells two kidnapping stories. Zhen ke, a private investigator who will soon die of a heart attack, saw a TV news: Samantha, a girl who was kidnapped and missing at the age of 13, was found by the police 15 years later. When Samantha disappeared, her parents asked Zhenke to find her. Because he couldn't make money, he was rejected by Zhenke. Now, on the verge of death, Zhenke wants to do one last meaningful thing: find Samantha's murderer.
Following the clues of the use of a voice changer on the reporting phone, Zhenke finds the informant who is equipped with an artificial laryngeal pronunciation device, and learns that there is a person wearing a rabbit head mask at the scene of the crime. Then, Zhenke found out in the Missing Persons Department of the police station that in 1983, 10-year-old boy Robin Basso was kidnapped and disappeared for 3 days. After finding him, his temperament changed drastically, and he tortured rabbits everywhere, frightening his parents and sending him to a foster home.
At the foster home, Zhenke saw one of Robin Basso's favorite rabbit comics. This is a dark comic that must be viewed in a mirror. While reading the manga, Zhenke was suddenly knocked unconscious. When I woke up, I found that this was Robin Basso's old lair. Riding on Robin Basso's unpreparedness, Zhenke tripped and knocked him unconscious, escaping. Upon returning home, Zhenke discovers that his little girlfriend has been kidnapped and killed when she arrives, and there is a wounded man with a rabbit head mask at the scene, who calls himself Peter Ley, and tells him that his gardener is Robin Basso.
Zhenke found a copy of Robin Basso's information from the Department of Human Disappearances, and found a deacon Sebastian nicknamed "Little Rabbit" in the church near the scene of his disappearance. He confessed that he had kidnapped Robin. Misled by Sebastian, Zhenke came to the gardener's residence and had a fight with him, and the heart attack sent to the hospital was ineffective to save him.
The doctor found the tape from Zhenke's hand and heard the mention of Berryesi, a police officer in the Department of Missing Persons, and brought the tape to Bereesi. Berissie finally learns from Zhenke's analysis that the man injured with the rabbit head mask is the real Robin Basso, who wants to sneak into the hospital through self-harm and injury to snatch the escaped Samantha back. So, Berrise set up a situation for Robin Basso to cast his own net.
Parallel to this kidnapping story is another kidnapping story. In the film, the scene of Dr. Green's memories of Samantha in the hospital ward is constantly interspersed. It wasn't until the end that we learned it was another kidnapping case a year later. Samantha in her hospital bed is actually Vakis, a police officer in the Department of Deptation and Disappearance of the Police Department. The one who helped her with psychoanalysis was the fake doctor who kidnapped her and injected her with a lot of psychotropic drugs to make her think she was Samantha, who had been missing for 15 years. It wasn't until the delivery call from the pizzeria came in that it showed its feet that Vaquez kicked over the fake doctor and snatched the map of the maze and escaped.
Dustin Hoffman, who plays the fake doctor in the film, is actually the earliest kidnapper. This is a highly intelligent criminal with a wise appearance and an evil heart. In the labyrinth he has created, he uses the news reports of Samantha's case a year ago to create a fog in an attempt to control Vaques's thinking and memory and make her believe the story she has made up. However, the veteran of the organ's calculations was finally exposed to the scam because of a phone call.
Frankly, though, Dustin Hoffman's performance in The Man in the Labyrinth is average. Originally, this was a rather deep character. Criminals who are well versed in psychology should have rigorous logical reasoning skills, strong psychological induction ability, and a dark and dirty inner world. Dustin Hoffman failed to fully demonstrate the qualities of these characters. Especially in the end, when Vaqués escapes, the old treacherous criminal will only recite words, but will not take any action, helpless.
At this point, I thought of Professor Hannibal, played by Anthony Hopkins. The most famous villain in the history of cinema combines an elegant gentleman and an ogre. He is knowledgeable, personable, and intelligent, but also bloodthirsty, perverted, and cruel. Civilization and barbarism are distorted in a single person, and everyone shudders. In "The Silence of the Lambs," the character of Hannibal appears for only 16 minutes, and Anthony Hopkins actually won the Academy Award for Best Actor. As a result, it was called "the shortest performance to win the Academy Award for Best Actor".
In comparison, I think Dustin Hoffman is still a long way from Anthony Hopkins. Perhaps because Dustin Hoffman plays too many positive characters and small characters to adapt to such crazy demon roles, "Man in the Labyrinth" has no other highlights except suspense and thriller. This is somewhat regrettable.
Everyone has something they're good at. Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man, Anthony Hopkins can't play. Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal, Dustin Hoffman can't play either. Therefore, it is very important for actors to choose roles carefully. If you can't play a role, don't force it to play, save yourself a bad reputation, especially in the later years of your life. The false doctor in The Man in the Labyrinth, similar to Hannibal in The Silence of the Lambs, is also a perverted bloodthirsty maniac. Dustin Hoffman can't play the two sides of his complexity, which is also helpless.
Not long ago, I watched "Fast Pig Killing" starring Nicolas Cage, which is a pity for his name of "King of Bad Movies". Hopefully Dustin Hoffman won't go his old ways.