The Manchurian Candidate
With the Cold War over, a remake of The Manchurian Candidate should receive a chilly reception, yet director Jonathan Demme heats up the screen with a premise that is just as relevant and just as intense. Now the enemy comes from within, a global corporation who literally runs the world, intent on maintaining their grasp on everyone and everything.
At first thought, remaking The Manchurian Candidate, a seminal 1962 Cold War thriller directed by John Frankenheimer, seems absurd. It’s not like they didn’t get it right the first time. Even by today’s standards, the paranoid trappings of Frankenheimer’s unthinkable nightmare still reverberate. Strong performances, a tightly wound script by George Axelrod, based on Richard Condon’s novel, and precision direction by Frankenheimer allow the original to stand up against the test of time.
Demme’s remake won’t leave the same historical thumb print, but for the moment, in the moment, it manages to convey the same sense of uneasy mistrust. Brainwashing soldiers to become ultimate killing machines isn’t that far fetched. To some degree, through basic training, soldiers are stripped of their individuality and then reprogrammed to obey commands.
Denzel Washington delivers a multifaceted performance, a strong man who doesn’t quite understand what is happening to his mind and body. A veteran of the Gulf War, Army Maj. Ben Marco (Washington) tries to accept the Army’s Voodoo diagnosis, but knows that something else is playing tricks on his mind. Part of a platoon that turned out a war hero, Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), Marco and his men seem to tell the exact same story but can’t explain why they were missing-in-action for three days.
By default, the audience is always one step ahead of the characters, forcing Demme and his cast to maintain our interest until they catch up. Perfectly paralleling Washington’s confusion is Meryl Streep’s powerful Senator Eleanor Shaw, a barracuda in a dress willing to devour anyone who gets in the way of her son’s political aspirations. Streep is cold and calculating, a tough cookie who never crumbles. When we finally understand her true motivations not only are we angry, but outraged.
Schreiber is excellent as the good son who becomes a human rope in an emotional tug of war between Mommie Dearest and Marco. We never sure whose side he is on, allowing the writer and director to finally keep us in the dark until the real payoff. The Manchurian Candidate grips you in its web of deceit and uncertainty until it’s almost excruciating.
MOMMIE QUEEREST
Streep Is The Candidate To Beat
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight, Kimberly Elise, Bruno Ganz, Vera Farmiga. Directed by Jonathan Demme. Rated R. 130 Minutes.
LARSEN RATING: $7.00
