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[trinityvixen]

I ordered The Manchurian Candidate (2004). The first twenty minutes left me utterly in awe of Meryl Streep--her character reminded me a lot of Grace McAllister from Jack and Bobby. She was brusque, ballsy, and didn't bullshit about. Truly terrifying and amazing all at once. She has, towards the end, this creep-tacular scene where she kisses her brain-washed son after helping him bathe and she almost reaches back in to kiss him again. Woogly. It was about that time that Liev Schreiber's character started to become aware of the tampering that had been done to him, and my heart broke for him. Even Denzel Washington's character felt bad for him, and Denzel was playing a nutjob. It's just awful how sad he makes this character and how well he flips between tense and upset to doofily drugged/hypnotized to teary and guilt-wracked. His character is forced to kill a girl he's still in love with, and he has this scene where he learns that she's dead (having no memory of killing her thanks to the brainwashing) and asks if he was the one who did it. Gah.

In other news, I passed Yo-Saff-Bridge in the hall today. My hand to God, her doppleganger works in P&S.

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I own that! And I LOVE Liev. *sigh* Oddly it was Kate and Leopold that sold me on him. He took this plot device role in a crap film and gave this amazing performance. He's a dog that can see rainbows - he may have been on screen for ten minutes of a ninety minute film, but he stole the show.

Manchurian Candidate is a powerhouse, both versions. I saw the original first, and this one still managed to be surprising. The original holds a special place in my heart, but this is one of the rare cases where the remake (especially of a thriller) is just as good as the original. Both hinge on the culture and paranoia of their time. And the acting is electrifying. You should watch the original too. The murder of his one true love is so shocking and memorable in it that they had to go in a completely different direction with it in the remake to avoid a retread.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I've probably gone on at length about how much I loved Liev in Sum of All Fears, another movie in which he makes a limited appearance and steals the show. Dumbed down Jack Ryan movie stolen out from under a be-toupeed Ben Affleck by Liev as John Clark. I think I should send Liev letters begging him to be Clark again in the film version of Without Remorse...

And he was really good in the Scream movies, 2 in particular, where he came off as creepy and also completely helpless at the same time. Somehow, he goes from smiling to snarling without much change but it's dramatic when he does it.

I will probably watch the original Manchurian Candidate sometime. Eugene recommended it to me, and I have the Netflix after all...