After reading Owen Gleiberman‘s perfectly phrased, deeply felt article about the legacy of Tom Noonan, I want to watch Manhunter again. And I’ve seen it three or four times.
That fascinating scene with the blind Joan Allen and the sedated Bengal tiger…burned into my memory. She’s emotionally open to Noonan’s Dollarhyde (aka “the Tooth Fairy”) and perhaps even sexually, but they don’t do it. Because Noonan/Dollarhyde is, for openers, too fucked up to go with the feeling. Plus he’s killed a guy he sees as a romantic rival. Plus he later decides to kill Allen. A real babe magnet.
Nothing else that Noonan ever did comes close to Manhunter. I don’t even remember What Happened Was. Or, for that matter, his supporting role in Charlie Kaufman‘s Synecdoche, New York.
