The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Today while picking out a movie at my mother's house, I stumbled across The Manchurian Candidate. At first I was a little unsure if I had seen it or not already. The name was very familiar and I've seen that box art dozens of times before, but after getting a brief story outline from my mother, it didn't sound familiar, and sure enough I hadn't seen it. This surprised me, as I think I've passed it up in the past under the belief I had already seen it. I'm really not sure where I got that impression, which is funny because the movie is actually of about that uncertainty of memory. As you can tell from the poster, this movie stars Denzel Washington, but helping to fill out the cast we also get Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber. Hit the jump for more impressions.


Right off the bat I'm going to say that I quite enjoyed this movie and I'll tell you why. It's crazy. Maybe not House crazy, but the story is still kinda out there. The story focuses on Ben Marco, played by Denzel, and Raymond Shaw, played by Liev. Two decorated military officers from the Kuwait war. Shaw saved almost their whole company by defeating 2 groups of enemies and helicopters on his own with a heavy machine gun mounted on the top of a Humvee. He was awarded the medal of honor for his actions.

Marco confronts Shaw about their memories

 The only problem is that members of his team who all originally gave evidence and testimony to support this exact turn of events, are all either dead or going insane with strange dreams and nightmares that show a different outcome. The mystery to solve what the dreams mean is taken up by Marco in an effort to prove he's not crazy, but this starts to get in Shaw's bid for the vice presidency.

I really liked the story and how it unfolded. I also really liked the psychological aspects of it and the ultimate mystery. That also makes it pretty hard to talk about because I really don't want to give much of the mystery away. I will say though that if you like conspiracy brainwashing type storylines, this is probably a movie for you.

There's some interesting cinematography too

Lastly I'll just say that I thought the acting was pretty good in this. Meryl Streep is excellent as Shaw's overbearing mother pushing for his success in politics and I liked what I saw in Liev Schreiber. I think I pretty much always like his work. As for Denzel, this is just the kind of role I like him doing. It was also kind of a weird change of pace seeing him clean shaven. Recently he's always pretty scruffy. His acting here I suppose could be considered standard fare for Denzel, but I like it. Sue me.

I think I've given you all I can for this movie. If I had to complain about anything, maybe it would be that the story of a conspiracy theory is old hat, but I still thought they pulled it off well, and when things really started getting deep, I literally turned to my mother and said "This movie is crazy!" That was a good thing, and I think it's a good movie. At least I can be sure from now on that I've actually seen this movie.