The Manchurian Candidate

USA, 2004. Directed by Jonathan Demme. Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Kimberly Elise, Jon Voight, Vera Farmiga, Bruno Ganz.

I’m wary of remakes, especially if I have fond memories of the original, and John Frankenheimer’s 1962 version starring Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra is a film I rate highly. But this one is headlined by two actors at the top of their game – Streep and Washington – and in Jonathan Demme has a highly acclaimed director, so I was interested to see what they’d done with it. The film uses the basic storyline from the original but updates and expands it. So we still have a conspiracy plot to use a brainwashed veteran to assassinate the president and an evil, power-hungry mother but the Communist conspirators of the earlier version are now the enemy within – big business and its corporate interests in the shape of the sinister Manchurian Corporation. Really comparisons aren’t helpful because despite the similarities this really is a different film and unfortunately a less successful one. Political thrillers with unscrupulous corporations and corrupt politicians have become a cliché and there is a lack of clarity and direction in the writing here which fails to lift this above the ordinary. There are too many plot holes left gaping and just too many indeterminate men in suits – I never did figure out the significance of Dean Stockwell’s character. Despite this Washington is superb – he just needs a better film. Streep was disappointing – her performance felt a bit like pantomime. Trivia: was Jon Voight’s final scene in the kayak a sly reference to his famous role in Deliverance all those years ago?