"Devilish, clever, haunting." Ah, I can hear the exclamations of the movie teasers already-there's no doubt that those triple-adjective freaks will pounce all over this one. It's a shame, because this film has the one thing they never do-a new perspective. The plot of The Young Poisoner's Handbook revolves around a budding toxicologist named Graham, played by My Left Foot's Hugh O'Conor. This guy is obsessed with creating the ultimate potion of death amidst an absurdly incongruous backdrop of English suburbia in the early 1960s. He transforms from a quiet chemistry genius to a psychopathic killer.
Though the silver screen has brought us psychopath upon psychopath in the past, the audience feels something with Graham that it really can't with Hannibal Lechter. The Young Poisoner's Handbook manages to pull off an Edgar Allen Poe-esque sense of identification with the lunatic, placing Graham in a spotlight that makes him appear "normal" and everyone else look odd. The audience manages to get inside his head, and see the world from his perspective. I'd like to see the triple-adjective freaks go there.
-Julia Cheiffetz
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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