CATRIONA PAUL at the Movies.

LET’S JUST get it out the way – I have not seen the 1962 original. So don’t expect worthy, insightful comparisons. Taking 2004’s The Manchurian Candidate at face value, you have a political thriller with X-files overtones. A disturbing, conspiracy theory film that despite strong performances from Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber, slips away from credible by making everything too neat.
 
It’s the Gulf War. Captain Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) and his crew come under attack from enemy fire. A decade later, back in America, the man credited with saving the company, Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), is running for vice-President. But memories of what happened during the attack and in the three “lost” days following, are beginning to unravel. Both Marco and Shaw begin to suspect some kind of mind control was applied to re-write the truth but as they struggle to understand what really happened, it becomes apparent that dark forces are at work to keep them ignorant.
  
Washington gives an assured performance as the strong military man turned shaky by nightmares. Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw perfects cold well enough to convince that there’s something of the automaton about him. Meryl Streep as Schrieber’s mother, Senator Eleanor Shaw, is perhaps the most interesting character, with Hilary Clinton hair and Lady Macbeth ambition. But the busy plot allows little time to deal subtlety to these characters and the truth becomes stark too soon. Director Jonathan Demme’s previous work includes the exceptional Silence of the Lambs, but in this film, perhaps the writing failed to offer the same opportunity.

It’s good, not brilliant. Your call.
 
 
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
General release

Director: Jonathan Demme
Writers: Richard Condon (novel); George Axelrod (screenplay)
Cast: Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Jon Voigt, Kimberley Elise, Dorian Missick
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 129
Country: USA

© Catriona Paul, 2004