The Manchurian Candidate
By Julian Roman
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Director: Jonathan Demme
Producers: Scott Rudin & Tina Sinatra
Screenwriters: Daniel Pyne & Dean Georgaris
Cinematographer: Tak Fujimoto
Composer: Rachel Portman
Cast: Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Jon Voight, Kimberly Elise,
Jeffrey Wright, Vera Farmiga, & Ted Levine
Jonathan Demme has accomplished something remarkable.
He's taken two classic films and turned them into mediocre ones.
The Truth About Charlie, starring Mark "Marky Mark" Wahlberg and
Thandie Newton, was a witless remake of the classic Cary Grant and
Audrey Hepburn film, Charade. Now he's put a modern spin on the
suspense masterpiece, The Manchurian Candidate, with Denzel
Washington taking the reins from Frank Sinatra.
On the surface there are a lot of things that work. It's well acted and
the story is relatable to current events. The problem is that the film is
poorly paced and ridiculously contrived. There are too many scenes that
require the willing suspension of disbelief to succeed. Demme infuses the
film with a liberal agenda. There's nothing wrong with that, but it ends up
looking like Fahrenheit 9/11. The difference being that Fahrenheit is much
better at conceptualization its conspiracy theories.
The film begins in Iraq during the first Gulf War. Captain Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) and his tank company are reconnoitering possible invasion routes. They're ambushed and mysteriously vanish for three days. The story picks up in the present with Marco as a psychologically devastated man. His life after the war has been beset by nightmares and illness. Marco's second in command, Raymond Shaw (the amazing Liev Schreiber), has parlayed his war experience into a successful political career as a New York Congressman. He won the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving the company and leading them out of the desert. His vitriolic, right-wing mother, Senator Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep), has maneuvered him into a spot as the Vice Presidential candidate for their party. A visit from a former soldier (Jeffrey Wright) leads Marco to believe they were all brainwashed and that Shaw is being secretly manipulated. He must get to Shaw and figure out who controls him. The fate of the country rests on Marco discovering the truth.
The updated Manchurian Candidate takes place in a world where the response to terrorism has gone awry. The film alludes to the US flexing its military muscle and attacking different countries in the war on terror. Meryl Streep's character of Eleanor Shaw is the kind of rabid zealot that shoots first and asks questions later. She is a dangerous individual with twisted morals. Demme is purposely satirizing conservative Republicans and their agenda. He portrays them as corporate pawns, bent on taking over the world. He also mocks the Fox News Channel, noted for its conservative views, by using similarly themed patriotic graphics on screen. The conspiracy is interesting, but so unrealistic. There are countless scenes where Ben Marco simply walks up to high profile politicians. This cannot be done, especially if he's constantly being surveilled by the bad guys. This is the only way the story can progress, so we have to accept these contrivances to follow the plot. Then there are huge sections of the film where nothing happens. It becomes incredibly tedious to watch. Demme should have edited out at least ten minutes. It would have added the much needed tension that the film lacks. Live Schreiber is astonishingly good as Raymond Shaw. He anchors this film with an Oscar worthy performance. Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington have the name recognition and do well, but are not nearly as subtle. They spend the film going to extremes while Schreiber takes a graduated approach. He is creepy and menacing, yet forlorn and likeable at the same time. His character is the pawn in the story and he conveys that part beautifully. I get sick of over-the-top, self indulgent acting. There's an art in understatement and Liev Schreiber has it down.
I purposely withhold any comparisons to the original film. There's nothing wrong with a remake, just try to preserve the quality of the film. I find the filmmaking sadly lacking. Demme could have had a great film if he'd paid more attention to detail and cut out the fluff. The Manchurian Candidate is a good film for the election year. It has many pertinent issues and legitimately pursues them. See it for the performances and a healthy dose of propaganda.
courtesy of BlackFilm.com
She Hate Me
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Spike Lee
Producers: Spike Lee, Preston L. Holmes, & Fernando Sulichin
Screenwriter: Michael Genet
Cinematographer: Matthew Libatique
Composer: Terence Blanchard
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Ellen Barkin,
Monica Bellucci, Jim Brown, Woody Harrelson, Dania Ramirez,
John Turturro, Q-Tip, & Brian Dennehy
Spike Lee is definitely a pioneer amongst African Americans. He and
Woody Allen are the only American directors to have come out with a
film a year for the last 18 years. Some have been films with critical
success such as Do The Right Thing and 25th Hour and some have
been missteps such as Girl 6. Nevertheless, each film Lee does leaves you to debate the issue within the film, and Lee craves that. He doesn't want you to walk away and think of something else as if you just watched a summer popcorn film. He wants to be angry or happy, so long as you talk about his film. Most of his films have controversial issues and while that may be a driving force to bring in an audience, he still has to make it compelling and intriguing enough for them to be satisfied with it. Such is not the case with his latest film, She Hate Me. While there are many issues within the film, Lee never connects the dots to make them coherent. They seem contrived and unbalanced, and when it ends, you may have to roll the dice again to figure this film out.
Anthony Mackie plays Jack Armstrong, an Ivy-League African American who works as an executive for a pharmaceutical company called Progeia. The company is working on a vaccination for AIDS and is awaiting approval from the FDA before selling it to the public. To the board members of the company, they need a positive vote to improve sales and make more money. When Jack figures out the company doing some scrupulous deeds to ensure things go their way, Jack becomes a corporate whistle blower and dimes out on his firm. Little did he know that the firm would make him the scapegoat and shift the blame on him and leave him in a ditch, with his bank accounts frozen until the situation is straightened out.
With no money in tow and very reluctant to ask his parents for help, John unexpectantly receives a visit from his ex-fiancée Fatima (Washington), who's now an open lesbian. John found out she was a lesbian when he walked in on her and another woman years ago and has since moved on with his life. Fatima and her lover (Ramirez) each want to have a baby and want John to father their child. They don't want to go through the usual process of tests and adoption. They want it the old fashioned way, through sex. John is appalled that they would even ask him to be a sperm donor. When Fatima tells him she knows about his cash flow problems and offers to pay him $10,000 for her and her lover, the money is too luring to refuse. Not only does Fatima come back into his life, but she also brings in a number of lesbians who are looking to get pregnant as well for $10,000 each. All of a sudden, John finds himself having sex for money.
Credit must be given to Lee for bringing several issues most filmmakers wouldn't dare touch, but he never makes the connection coherent for anyone to buy. Some lesbians will have faults with the way they are portrayed while others might applaud it, but the film doesn't develop the plights that lesbians go through in having children. Instead, what we see is a man clearly having a good time having sex with different types of women; black, white, Asian, Italian, petite, and plus size. At one point, the mob gets into this picture. Instead of focusing on the effects of being a being a whistle blower as well as the corporate criminal activities in light of what is currently going on with Enron and Martha Stewart, we only get a small reminder of who Frank Wills is. Wills was the African American who reported the Watergate activities to the authorities. The rest of the plot seemed contrived and forced. There's no telling if this film is supposed to a dark comedy or a drama. Some moments seemed hilarious when it shouldn't. Mackie is certainly able to carry the film in light of the script, but the talents of many actors such as Harrelson, Barkin, and Turturro are clearly wasted, although Turturro, a veteran of Lee's film, has his moment playing a Mafia Kingpin. In the end, what you have is a film that is certainly provocative and funny, but is that what you had in mind when you came to see it.
courtesy of BlackFilm.com
