Jonathan Demme and his writers have re-thought the original in broad strokes, and some of what they come up with has its own energy. Updating it, as they have, offers startling possibilities, but it all seems unfinished and underdeveloped. Basically, their script lacks the unity and the seamlessness of the original, so for me, the movie never let me forget the absolute perfection of John Frankenheimer's version. Demme goes to great lengths setting up his basic premise and the focus and tone of his story gets sort of muddled. Raymond Shaw's relationship with the Jordan family has been reduced to past action and is never dramatized, so when the murders happen there's really no emotional jolt. In fact, what happens is rather silly. Shaw's character lacks possibilities; what's lost to him, and how, comes off as being matter of fact. Liev Schrieber almost pulls off the part, but the script, and Demme's hodgepodge approach keeps getting in the way. I responded to the character's sense of confusion, and believed his gut wrenching remarks about lost love and so forth. But the script left me lost as to how and when his moments of clarity coincided with confusion. Instead of giving way to the character's predicament, I lost track of what's going on, asking myself basic question: what is he doing, what does he know and remember? Does he really walk though the wall of his hotel room to that weird operating room? Or is that some sort of mind game played by the bad guys? Or is it a memory? I have no idea, and I think for a movie like this to really work we have to know at some point or another what's going on; what's real and what's fabricated. To be perfectly frank, I don't think Demme is the kind of director who thinks that way. To say he's not as good a director as John Frankenheimer seems unfair, but may, in fact, be the truth. Frankenheimer moves his version of this story at a lightning pace, never leaving the gaps that Demme does. Likewise, the way Frankenheimer brings us into the weird and paranoid fixations each character experiences has an emotional weight that makes the action exciting. There is confusion, but it's the kind of confusion that propels us forward: Frankenheimer presents clues that we are compelled to connect. Meryl Streep plays the Mother, who in this version is a Senator, as if she's doing a comedy. The same tone in her line readings here can be found in the brilliant comic turn she did in DEATH BECOMES HER. But there's nothing comic in Demme's vision; she offers a character that is playing a role in some other kind of movie, and it's really hard to take her seriously. The only consistent sign of life throughout the film is Denzel Washington who is capable of making his way through the mess of this script with a clear intention and a striking sense of humanity. Washington's character never demands, he goads others in the film to believe him. In doing so, he goads us, as well. The real emotional power of the piece, the movie's core, happens in the scenes he has with Raymond, one on one. His need to discover the truth is raw, and it grabs you. Washington is that rare figure: a movie star who is also a great actor. He is the show here. Without him, this movie would be a complete bust.
Review of The Manchurian Candidate
