The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

(Paramount Home Entertainment, 12.21.2004)

Jonathan Demme's election-year remake of The Manchurian Candidate, a relic of the Cold War if there ever was one, takes endless opportunities for trenchant updating and trashes them at every turn. Like Troy, it's a big-studio effort flush with inexhaustible resources that are constantly squandered on a storyline that simply does not measure up to the talent involved; vague when it could be tantalizing, heavy-handed when it should be fleet.

Demme wrings impeccable performances from actors and technicians alike, but the crisp slickness of the film unfortunately works against it. It's simply not keyed into its time in the satiric manner of the 1963 original; it's a vacuum-sealed nightmare vision that already seems strangely, quaintly dated.

John Frankenheimer's original cast a suspicious eye on both McCarthy-era Communist frenzy and the emerging technological innovation of (and political power afforded by) television. Demme and credited writers Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris appear to have a lot of fun re-working details from the original, but most of the choices made within the architecture of the story are disappointingly routine (e.g., the new bad guys: corporate moneybags).

Political-paranoia thrillers like The Parallax View and the original Manchurian turn the world inside out, terrifyingly so. Demme's version chugs dutifully from plot point to plot point while paying mere lip service to the hotblooded political context it was generated from. There's little honest rage fueling this Manchurian. It's ultimately too timid a thriller to build up the head of firey indignation it needs to uncurl its talons and draw blood.

Paramount's spit-polished DVD presentation offers plenty of supplemental material including a back-slapping commentary with Demme and Pyne, a handful of wisely-deleted scenes and a couple of disposable featurettes. Liev Schreiber's empathetic performance as the confused, conflicted Raymond Shaw is the highlight of Demme's new Manchurian and the screen test included with the DVD is proof positive of Schreiber's achievement.

There's also an amusing exchange with Meryl Streep (in character, as treacherous Eleanor Shaw) trying to get pundit Al Franken (!) to crack a smile. Like the film that supports it, the extras are entertaining but ultimately disposable. -- Jason Comerford