The Manchurian Candidate

I'm not a big fan of remakes, since I feel like they often don't improve on the original, which casts a "been there, done that" aura on the new film from the get go.

Mostly, however, I dislike them because it makes me lose hope in the current crop of filmmakers, screenwriters and above all studio execs, who have to resort to reheating old material instead of cooking something fresh.

Do they mean to tell us that there aren't enough good new scripts around Tinseltown that they need to serve us repeats or they'd be out of work? Seems hardly possible to me.

Anyway, I was pleased, for once, to come across a remake that, whether really needed or not, didn't turn out looking like an ugly carbon copy or the 1962 original starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury.

The new take only updates the settings of the original and doesn't really change anything in the plot, leaving me to having to judge only the performances, since the story is absolutely brilliant.

The remake stars a dark and confused Denzel Washington and an achingly sweet, coldly robotic Liev Schreiber as two of the men from the American platoon trapped by the plot's conspiracy. Meryl Streep, is a strong willed Senator all too knowledgeable of the dangerous mingling of politics and business. Her acting is as strong as ever, but this is hardly a part I will remember her for, maybe because her role is important but not that big.

Washington and Streep were the two names on everyone's lips when the picture came out, but I found that Schreiber was exceptionally good and I actually liked Jon Voight, an actor I'm not particularly fond of, quite a bit. I thought he was well cast in the minor role of a Senator who dares to entrench into Streep's plans for her son's future.

Director Jonathan Demme creates a dark tale of intrigue, conspiracies, betrayal, friendship, and loyalty that entertains but doesn't seem to want to take too many chances, almost as if saying, The original was good, I'll follow its lead. However, the movie is enjoyable and certainly worth viewing.

Grade: 7.5