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The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

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From Time Out London

Major Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington) suffers nightmares, related somehow to his experiences in Kuwait in 1991. But only when he’s approached by Al Melvin (Jeffrey Wright) does he realise he’s not alone in his psychic turmoil, and begin to suspect that there’s more than meets the eye to the much-vaunted heroic acts allegedly performed by Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) when they were ambushed in the desert: much vaunted because Shaw, with not a little ‘encouragement’ and ‘help’ from his fiercely ambitious mother, Senator Ellie Shaw (Meryl Streep), is running as vice-presidential candidate in the upcoming elections. Marco’s dreams don’t disappear, but Melvin does – at least until he’s found drowned in the Potomac. Time for Marco to talk turkey with Shaw…

Given the classic status of John Frankenheimer’s 1962 movie, Jonathan Demme, his cast and writers Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris were risking ridicule in taking on another version of Richard Condon’s novel. Happily, this extremely timely entertainment matches, even perhaps surpasses its predecessor. Suspense and sly humour are again in abundance, as is political relevance. Here is an America where truth, democracy and proper ethical considerations are imperilled not by Cold War enemies but by unbridled late capitalism itself; dynastic ambition, hollow patriotism, meaningless slogans, the fuelling of fear and paranoia, media complicity and puppet figureheads under the influence of shady, self-serving global conglomerates are the order of the day. Nothing surprising about that, really, except that this is a Hollywood genre movie, and it’s terrific, for once, to see a sharp, slick, adult, darkly comic thriller whose more outlandish aspects – brainwashing by implant, say – succeed so well as metaphors for contemporary reality. The performances (especially that of Streep) are spot-on, the script extraordinarily up-to-date, and Demme’s direction – particularly the creation of unease through the subtle use of sound and odd direct-to-camera dialogue – a real return to form after his last film. Worryingly superior stuff.

Author: GA

Time Out London Issue 1787: November 17-24, 2004

User reviews of this film

Leona Luk said...

Posted on Jul 09 2007 23:35 While a good film, I did not think this to be superior to the original. It follows similar lines, made to fit the contemporary world and it's worries. The performances are great, direction is great. The only blip is an unanswered question or two.
Washington's character, Marco, has a friend who helps him out. This man refers to Marco as helping him out of Albania, however he is called a German by another character - I'm not sure what he is, however that doesn't matter so much as what becomes of him. Marco goes back to visit him for the 3rd time during the course of the movie and finds all trace of the man gone at his lab. Where'd he go? This is not only not answered but not even addressed by any character. Marco seems a little disturbed at the sight of the cleaned out lab, however he's obviously not too bothered because he asks no questions!
There were some other questions, however to ask them would be to ruin the film for those who have not seen this version or the original. So I'll just end off by saying that this was pretty good entertainment, as was the original, and you're not wasting your time by watching it...although you might waste your time later by asking unanswerable questions about it.

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