I had trouble putting this in my chart for the year. First off, I put it way up there at number 5, under Eternal Sunshine, Vol. 2, Jersey Girl and The Terminal, and I do think it will be in the major categories at the Oscars. But by the time I got around to thinking back on it, I realised how forgettable it was compared to the original, which, although I’d “forgotten” (all the plot-points here jolted my memory), I have always counted as a movie I need to see again because it’s definitively etched in my mind as a masterpiece. I think the problem lies in the ending. It all ends up kind of pointless. I don’t remember the ending of the original, but I look forward to watching both versions side by side whenever I have the time and this remake is out on DVD.

While watching the opening credits, I couldn’t help but think Jonathan Demme is making some desperate bid for another Silence of the Lambs at the Oscars (Silence was one of the few in history to win the Big Five Oscars – Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay). I can easily see this movie being at least nominated in as many categories. There’s Denzel, who’s always a shoe-in. Meryl, who’s not only a shoe-in but damn good, even as good as Angela Lansbury in the original. Supporting players like Liev Shrieber and Jon Voight, even Jeffrey Wright in his few lines. A score by Rachel Portman that’s kind of standard, but, compared to her usual lighter work, intriguing. All the elements are here and it’s a pretty amazingly put together movie that the Academy would be nuts to ignore.

But “well-made” doesn’t work for me so much. Though it had its moments, for me it just didn’t resonate like the original. Like I said, I think it’s all to do with the ending, and to do with the Manchurian element of the screenplay. This big company just didn’t work for me as an evil presence. Naming it Manchurian Global for the sake of a title didn’t help much either.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 12th, 2004 at 10:57 pm in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.