Review of The Manchurian Candidate (2004) by Dawdlingpoet — 27 Nov 2021

This is a somewhat sinister film, with a relatively decent performance by Denzel Washington, although it didn't feel engrossing enough to fully grab my attention and I feel it missed something of substance but its hard to say quite what.

The story is a sobering one - I can imagine people who may have been, shall we say tampered with, being regarded as paranoid but this isn't quite 'Men in Black' level, special effects wise or otherwise.

The themes are obviously quite serious and not at all comedic really, especially in this day and age of unstable politics, I suppose. Indeed it has an element of the classic novel 1984 about it, I suppose.

I felt there was perhaps an element of over acting at times, while at other times almost the opposite applied, in that there wasn't perhaps as much emotion expressed as I expected and not just down to the brainwashing aspect of the plot.

However, I certainly wouldn't say the film is unwatchable - it features a decent cast with Meryl Streep, Jon Voight and Denzel Washington but I certainly wouldn't say its a particularly good film. It had/has potential and its ok but not great, so overall I wouldn't especially recommend it, no, although its certainly a thought provoking film.