150 Word Review: The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Why don't you pass the time by watching this surprisingly excellent remake
There are a few good remakes. Director Jonathan Demme’s 2004 interpretation of John Frankenheimer’s 1962 psychological thriller The Manchurian Candidate is less stylized and operatic than the legendary original but it’s darker and more grounded.
It’s also not a Cold War fable. The conspiracy at the center of Demme’s The Manchurian Candidate is a powerful cabal of politicians and corporate leaders, not communists. Instead of North Koreans brainwashing U.S. soldiers and turning them into unwitting assassins, it’s greedy Americans.
The movie stars Denzel Washington and Liev Shreiber as a pair of Gulf War veterans who suffer from nightmares that may actually be traumatic memories. The usually cool and regal Washington is especially vulnerable as he slowly loses his grip on reality. And then there’s Meryl Streep on full power as Shrieber’s character’s mom, a scheming Senator who desperately wants her son to be President. It’s all perfectly political and paranoid.