The Ghost Writer
DVDs July 29th, 2010
Product Description
When a gifted ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) is hired to write the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), he quickly finds himself trapped in a web of political and sexual intrigue. Lang is implicated in a scandal over his administration’s harsh tactics, and as the ghostwriter digs into the politician’s past, he discovers secrets that threaten to jeopardize international relations forever. Co-starring Olivia Williams and Kim Cattrall, it i… More >>
The Ghost Writer
July 30th, 2010 at 12:18 am
“The Ghost Writer” is a Roman Polanski political thriller of the first order. It is very cleverly plotted with gripping suspense and narrative drive that pulls you into the story. Some movies of late have seemed endless; in this one I was completely unaware of time passing and was completely enthralled by this story of the deepest intrigue. It’s full of conspiracies, and the whole thing is done in a very classy, sophisticated manner that will remind you of Hitchcock at his very best. It’s engrossing and involving.
The acting is top-notch with Ewan McGregor very effective as the ghost writer who has been brought in to liven up the memoirs of a former prime minister (played extremely well by Pierce Brosnan). He is a Tony Blair figure who has been fingered for war crimes by one of his former cabinet ministers. He has ordered the arrest and rendering out of Britain of suspects so that they could be tortured for information.
The movie begins in gloomy, leaden weather on the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. A car is discovered without a driver. The man’s body turns up later on the island, the victim of accident, suicide, or as we rightly assume, murder. Foul play indeed! He is the previous ghost writer who has now been replaced by McGregor. And of course he found out too much while doing his research. McGregor, of course, knows he could be a target as well.
Polanski has deliberately made very mundane matters seem full of import and menace. It’s full of clues and mysterious doings in the austere modernistic house so alien to the Vineyard. The cinematography and atmospherics are terrific. A lot of sinister-seeming goings-on.
They don’t make them this good anymore, and I think viewers will be pleasantly surprised. The intellectually curious and politically savvy will be impressed, I think. Pierce Brosnan by the force of his personality makes Tony Blair seem like a naïve schoolboy by comparison.
Rating: 5 / 5
July 30th, 2010 at 12:35 am
“The Ghost Writer” is excellent! This is how the story goes: When a successful British ghostwriter, The Ghost, agrees to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang, his agent assures him it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. But the project seems doomed from the start–not least because his predecessor on the project, Lang’s long-term aide, died in an unfortunate accident. The Ghost flies out to work on the project, in the middle of winter, to an oceanfront house on an island off the U.S. Eastern seaboard. But the day after he arrives, a former British cabinet minister accuses Lang of authorizing the illegal seizure of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture by the CIA — a war crime. The controversy brings reporters and protesters swarming to the island mansion where Lang is staying with his wife, Ruth, and his personal assistant and mistress, Amelia. As The Ghost works, he begins to uncover clues suggesting his predecessor may have stumbled on a dark secret linking Lang to the CIA — and that somehow this information is hidden in the manuscript he left behind. Was Lang in the service of the American intelligence agency while he was prime minister? And was The Ghost’s predecessor murdered because of the appalling truth he uncovered?
The cast led by Ewan McGregor (as The Ghost) & Pierce Brosnan (as Adam Lang) is excellent! The directing by Roman Polanski (who also wrote the screenplay and produced) (who also directed “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968), “Chinatown” (1974) & “The Pianist” (2002, which won him the Best Director Oscar, he also produced) is excellent! The screenplay by Robert Harris (based on his novel) & Polanski is excellent!
The music by Alexandre Desplat (who also did the music to “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” (2009), “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” (2008), “The Queen” (2006), “Julie & Julia” (2009), “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009), the upcoming “The Tree Of Life” (2010) & “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part I” (2010) is excellent! The cinematography by Pawel Edelman (who also did the cinematography to “The Pianist” & “Ray” (2004) is excellent! The film editing by Hervé de Luze (who also did the film editing to “The Pianist”) is excellent! The casting by Fiona Weir (who also did the casting to “Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire” (2005), “Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix” (2007), “Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince” (2009), the upcoming “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Parts I & II” (2010 & 2011) & “Invictus” (2009) is excellent! The production design by Albrecht Konrad is excellent! The art direction by Cornelia Ott (who also did the art direction to “Valkyrie” (2008), David Scheunemann (supervising art director) (who also did the art direction to “Inglourious ********” (2009) & the upcoming “The Apparition” (2010) & Steve Summersgill (who also did the art direction to the upcoming “The Apparition”) is excellent! The set decoration by Katharina Birkenfeld & Bernhard Henrich (who also did the set decoration to “Valkyrie” & “The Bourne Supremacy” (2004) is excellent! The costume design by Dinah Collin (who also did the costume design to “United 93″ (2006) is excellent!
This is a excellent mystery-thriller that keeps you guessing and thinking and on the edge of your seat. This is one of the best movies of the new year. This is one of Roman Polanski’s best movies in a while.
Rating: 5 / 5
July 30th, 2010 at 1:01 am
This movie is bound to raise some ire and all for the wrong reasons. The controversy surrounding Polanski will dominate the argument. I feel that is incredibly unfair to every one else who has worked on this movie. So I am going to separate the art from the artist.
In what has to be one of the best casting decisions, Pierce Brosnan plays Adam Lang the former Prime Minister of UK. Embroiled in a controversy regarding the rendition program, he has sought refuge in America. Ewan McGregor (he is never given a name) is hired as a ghost writer after the original one dies in a mysterious accident.
Your average thriller would start out with the base setup and build on the tension leading upto the finale. But in Ghost Writer the tension is always palpable. Even in the most mundane of scenes you are never allowed to settle. The remarkable background score by Alexandre Desplat and the camera work of Pawel Edelman which paints predominantly in varying shades of bleakness play a huge part in achieving that.
Pierce Brosnan is brilliant as a conflicted man who had to make difficult decisions in demanding situations. The movie very wisely chooses not take a stance on where it stands on those decisions. Olivia Williams as Ruth Lang produces an impressive multi-faceted performance in a meaty role – the kind rare in Hollywood these days.
So if you are open to separating the art from the artist, definitely watch this movie.
Rating: 4 / 5
July 30th, 2010 at 3:44 am
This is Roman Polanski’s latest movie. That is an issue in itself, which I have decided to ignore. I believe I can have an opinion about his work independent of moral judgments of the man’s life.
Polanski has made many very different movies. Some of them were very good. I can not remember any that would be classified as political thriller. Why did he decide to make this one? My hunch is that he was interested in other aspects of the story, not the main plot.
The film is based on a thriller by Robert Harris. Harris normally writes a different kind of book. He is best known for `historical’ thrillers, like Enigma, or Imperium, and for `alternative history’ thrillers, like Fatherland, or Archangel. I like his books a lot. The Ghost was unusual in picking up a recent subject, which of course also fades more and more into history, however not entirely as long as the Iraq adventure is not finished.
As a political thriller, it deals with the Iraq war and with Britain’s participation in it. Brosnan plays a barely disguised version of Blair. He is the ex PM by now, and resides on an island like Martha’s Vineyard as a guest of a US conglomerate that earns its bucks in `security’, specializing on Middle Eastern issues. He gets accused of war crimes and the International Court starts prosecution. His American friends stand by him. He is facing a situation where he may not leave the US without danger of arrest.
As a thriller, it deals with the situation of the ghostwriter. The ex-PM is writing his memoirs. His ghostwriter and long time collaborator drowns few weeks before publishing deadlines. The hastily hired replacement, McEwan, finds himself in an oddly claustrophobic situation on this island with mostly bad weather, in an isolated super-safe high- tech house, with neurotic people who are always highly strung. Main source of tension is Mrs. ex-PM, who is fighting psycho wars with everybody, most intensively with Brosnan’s personal assistant (an attractive blonde who warns off any expected ouvertures by McEwan by telling him that she misses her husband, within less than an hour of their `cooperation’.). It is an atmosphere of suspicion, jealousy and hysteria.
Suspicions about the predecessor’s death begin to grow in the ghost’s mind. Was he murdered? Strange clues are found in his material. Quickly McEwan finds and investigates traces of a conspiracy. His relation with the boss is not good. (On first encounter, Brosnan asks: who are you? McEwan says: I am your ghost. That is not received too favorably, though Mrs. Ex says: see, he is funny.) His relationship with the boss’s wife is difficult (he asks her: did you ever want to be a proper politician yourself? she answers this insult by asking: and you, did you ever want to be a proper writer?) …
Here I have to stop relating the plot, to avoid spoilers.
What do I think of the film? The plot is too contemporary to be a comfortable subject for a thriller. Its characters are too identifiable. It is too easy to confuse fiction with allegations. If it were mainly meant to carry a political message, it is too indecisive and loses its steam through its fictional elements. As we say in German: not fish, not meat.
The political message that stands, independent of twists and turns of the plot, is the accusation that every single decision that the ex-PM has taken as PM was in the interest of a foreign government.
Esthetically, the island life and the siege situations, when protesters and press bother the inmates of the `asylum’, have a strong identity and mood. Was Polanski telling us of his own situation in Switzerland?
Rating: 4 / 5
July 30th, 2010 at 5:47 am
I enjoyed Roman Polanski’s adaptation of Robert Harris’ novel The Ghost: A Novel (HARDCOVER), renamed ‘The Ghost Writer’ for US release. The movie, too, takes the name of the US book release. Shame that, because ‘The Ghost’ is a more apt title – Harris’ trick is to never provide a name to the Ewan McGregor writer character…a feat Polanski pulls off as well. The Ghost role was originally supposed to go to Nicolas Cage, but passed to McGregor. That was a major upgrade – Cage has become a cartoon. Harris’ protagonist is short on ego and confidence and has a bit of marketing and Fleet Street in him. McGregor is perfect.
Harris’ book is a thinly veiled broadside at Tony Blair. Harris had been a supporter of Blair’s, but soured on him over Iraq. Here’s where the movie excels over the book: Pierce Brosnan’s Adam Lang is positively Blair-ian down to his fiber. No less subtle is Harris’ depiction of Lang’s wife, Ruth, as shrewish and scheming (and more), pretty much hitting and playing up the worst rumors of Cherie Blair’s behind-the-scenes role at 10 Downing St. The Blairs can’t be at all happy with this portrayal, most notably with Harris’ denouement as it comes to the Adam Lang character. And, if anything, Polanski’s version is even more shocking as it comes to its treatment of Lang in the end. It seems almost incendiary.
I enjoyed the film a bit less than the book. The book’s tone is superb. I was hooked right from the first line – “The moment I heard how McAra died, I should have walked away.” That’s one of the best opening lines ever for a novel. I have to admit I was fairly obsessed with cataloging the differences between book and film, mostly those due to what I’ll call “Polanski-induced restrictions.” The book takes place mostly in three locales: London; Martha’s Vineyard and New York City. Polanski can travel to none of those places. So, Berlin serves as London. A bleak island in the North Sea serves as gray, wintertime Martha’s Vineyard. And Harris and Polanski – as adapters of the novel into a screenplay – conspire to write NYC out of the plot all together.
Rating: 4 / 5