Manchurian Candidate, The

Aroview: Slickly modernised version of the Cold War classic, tailors its twisted fable of political paranoia into a complex speculation on military, political and corporate manipulation, which has been hailed of dir. Demme's best work since THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.

Washington plays a US veteran of the first Gulf War, who becomes curious, then suspicious of the behaviour of a former comrade (Schreiber) being groomed as a Vice-Presidential candidate by his mother (Streep), herself a powerful senator. Eventually, investigations return to a series of incidents in Kuwait, which may have left a number of soldiers brain-washed by unknown parties into becoming unwitting 'sleeper' assassins.

Less wickedly satiric than the original, this substitutes an ominous seriousness rendered in slightly fevered visuals, though the script still revels in some poisonously cynical humour. As expected, the cast all deliver memorable performances, with Streep a standout.

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