On a surface level, the films "Copycat" and "Silence of the Lambs" parallel each other in important ways. In both cases a young investigator is teamed with an older one to help solve a serial murder. In both cases the nature of the crime is defined at least in some measure by gender, with female identity equated with victimization. And in both cases the gender of the investigator is also important both to the investigation itself and to the ways in which victims, criminals, and investigators relate to each other. But the message and the dynamics of the two films are nonetheless strikingly different, with "Silence of the Lambs" in the end reinforcing stereotypes of femininity in a disturbing way while "Copycat" avoids neatly engendered stereotypes.
One of the key distinctions between the films is that of seniority: In "Copycat" the investigators are the junior, and not-quite-ready-for-primetime Ruben Goetz (played by Dermot Mulroney) who is teamed with M.J. Monahan (played by Holly Hunter), who is experienced, smart, skilled, and diplomatic. While the major dynamic of the movie is their search for the killer, the major secondary dynamic is the relationship between the two investigators and the ways in which seniority and experience must be respected. This is not, of course, a fundamentally innovative message - that old cops have a few tricks to teach young cops. However, the fact that in this case seniority is symbolized by female authority and power does introduce a somewhat novel element into the equation.
This role-reversal is absent in "Silence of the Lambs", in which the lead investigator is the not-yet-qualified FBI special agent Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster). Starling is asked (in a move that does not pass any real-world probability standard) by the head of the FBI Behavioral Sciences Profiling Unit, Special Agent Jack Crawford, to interview psychiatrist and convicted serial killer Hannibal Lecter. From this fir...