Updating classic films is always a tricky proposition.
Jonathan Demme learned this the hard way two years ago when his The Truth About Charlie failed to capture either the suspense or the charm of 1963's Charade.
Yet he forged ahead with The Manchurian Candidate, a reworking of the 1962 John Frankenheimer thriller about brainwashed assassins turned loose on an unsuspecting America.
The assassins were veterans of the Korean War who had been programmed by Communist scientists working out of a lab in Manchuria.
A chilling tale unfolding at the height of the Cold War, Frankenheimer's film played on America's paranoia of Communist agents infiltrating American politics, entertainment and big business.
Demme's film capitalizes on the growing fears of terrorism on American soil, so sadly illustrated by the attack on the World Trade Center.
Denzel Washington plays Captain Ben Marco, a veteran of the Gulf War whose platoon in Kuwait miraculously escaped annihilation because of the heroics of one of its members, Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber).
The surviving members of the attack remember Shaw singlehandedly downing enemy helicopters and leading the platoon to safety when Marco himself was injured and thus incapable of command.
Understandably, Shaw was awarded the Medal of Honor. Flash forward and the war hero is now a vice-presidential candidate.
Shaw, who has been plagued by nightmares of sinister operations and even murder within the platoon, begins to believe there is a very different explanation of what happened during those four fateful days in Kuwait.
To reveal much more of The Manchurian Candidate's plot would weaken the suspense and shocks, as well as the plot and character twists that screenwriters Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris have honed around Richard Condon's novel and George Axelrod's 1962 adaptation.
For a generation of moviegoers who have no knowledge of the original, Demme's Manchurian Candidate is guaranteed to produce gasps of disbelief and shock as Marco and Shaw not only learn the truth but discover what their captives have planned for them.
Washington shows the pain, frustration and confusion that consume Marco's life, and he's able to make the audience share it with him.
It's always a great device having the audience know more than most of the characters in the film, including the hero himself.
Demme exploits this beautifully in The Manchurian Candidate.
Meryl Streep oozes icy evil as Shaw's mother, a senator determined to get her son into the White House.
Back in 1962, the role earned Angela Lansbury an Academy Award nomination for supporting actress and will likely do the same for Streep.
It's a scene-stealing role to begin with and Streep attacks it with as much relish as venom.
The biggest and most pleasant surprise this time around is the character of Shaw, who is not nearly as passive as poor Laurence Harvey had to play him 42 years ago.
Schreiber makes it clear Shaw and his mother share more than genes and ambition, and that makes him a truly scary person.
The less one knows or remembers about the original, the more likely Demme's The Manchurian Candidate will work its chilling, thrilling magic.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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