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The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Story: A retired army major questions his memories about a key military engagement in the Iraqi desert. Running Time: 2hrs 10 minutes. Certificate 15.
Imagine building a house of cards. Carefully and painstakingly you build the foundations, propping up each pair of cards at the appropriate angle, always aware of the goal of a complete structure that looks impossible but thanks to the skill and patience of the architect, stands proud in all its wobbly glory. The Manchurian Candidate is like a house of cards, but unfortunately Jonathan Demme ran out of cards for the final two layers and used sausages instead.
So there we have it. Tha Manchurian Candidate is a well presented, beautifully acted psychological thriller, let down massively by the omission of necessary details. As a polished piece of cinematographic entertainmnent, it works nicely. As a cohesive story, it falls flat. The sausages are just too heavy for the cards. I enjoyed this film: (though the first hour and a half was ) I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: Spying and conspiracies are enough for 1 point. To enjoy this film you should: Stop thinking 20 minutes before the end.
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Cast: Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, Meryl Streep, Kimberley Elise, Jon Voight.
Directed by Jonathan Demme.
The Manchurian Candidate is a remake of the 1962 John Frankenheimer film of the same name, this time set in 2008.
Denzel Washington takes Frank
Sinatra's part of Major Marco, who was involved in the Iraqi conflict and is plagued by nightmares about an incident
that occurred some years ago. The hero of that event has since entered politics and become a congressman (Liev Schreiber),
aided in his political campaign by his domineering mother (Meryl Streep). Marco begins to suspect his memories when visited
by another member of that unit who is having the same nightmares. That's all
I can tell you without ruining it for you - until you see it, that is. The ending will ruin it for you anyway.
It is most frustrating that I can't tell you why the ending is so poor because it would give away the plot - suffice
to say that the story is carefully constructed with skill and expertise for the first 90 minutes, only to smash it to
pieces in the final half hour with clumsy and malformed plot developments.
Leaving aside the denouement for a moment, The Manchurian Candidate is a very worthy piece of cinema. The performances
all round are faultless and the story progresses nicely, giving away enough to keep us interested without letting us know
completely what's going on. We are led towards a conclusion, without knowing whether it's going to end that way or not.
We pick up little clues and try to work out whether they are genuine or red herrings and right up until the poo starts
flying we are not quite sure which direction we have been going - this is all good, it's how a pyschological thriller should
work - and there are even a couple of light moments within the clouds. The overriding quality makes it all the more
surprising when the wheels fall off. It's not that the quality changes - it's purely the plot. So many holes, so many
"why did they do that?" moments, so much disappointment at a good film ruined. I'm prepared to believe that all the holes
were plugged in the original story, but in the movie we are not told enough, so we are left with big gaps in our
understanding, rendering the whole thing a shambles.
