“The Manchurian Candidate” (Paramount Pictures)
In 1962 Frank Sinatra starred in a film entitled “The Manchurian Candidate.” It was all about brainwashing and a plot to assassinate a Presidential candidate. It was also one of the most intense movies ever made and one of the most thrilling. Another hallmark of the film was that it gave Angela Lansbury a chance to play the “meanest mother” of them all.
Now the film has been remade into a political thriller starring Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber and Meryl Streep. Jonathan Demme has taken the place of John Frankenheimer who directed the original. Demme directed “The Silence of the Lambs” and that is a plus, but he also remade “Charade” into the pitiful “The Trouble With Charlie.”
If you are going to remake a classic it had better turn out as good as or preferably better than the original. The new version of “The Manchurian Candidate” doesn’t even come close. As the paranoid military man, Washington is too intense and too sincere. He is never full of self-doubt and he is never twitchy in a likeable way, as was Sinatra.
Schreiber is never gaunt eyed and hollow as Laurence Harvey was as the brainwashed killer. Schreiber just seems easily manipulated, but never programmed. And Kimberly Elise is just window dressing as Rosie, the mysterious woman who pops up in Washington’s path.
The biggest disappointment is Meryl Streep. With her Hilary Clinton hairdo and haughty air in place, Streep huffs and puffs but never captures the darkness of the soul this role should have. She is strident and foul-mouthed but never totally evil. She gives a good swing but she strikes out.
The film is rated R for profanity and violence.
Some classics should be left alone. This is the case with “The Manchurian Candidate.” Every single move that has been made to update it weakens it. The cold war terror is gone, the evil mother has been de-clawed, and the power of brainwashing has been reduced to a microchip.
I scored “The Manchurian Candidate” a manipulated 4 out of 10.
