Review: The Ghost Writer

The Ghost Writer

OPENING: 02/19/2010

STUDIO: Summit Entertainment

RUN TIME: 128 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Reading between the lines can prove deadly.

Opening Statement
Straight from prison comes director Roman Polanski’s first thriller in more than a decade. Dramatically tense, atmospherically bleak, and knee deep in political intrigue; it’s obvious this much beleaguered filmmaker has not lost his ability to turn the screws on an audience.

Facts of the Case
Following a much needed changing of the guard at Downing Street, the pressure is on former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan, Tomorrow Never Dies) to publish his highly charged memoirs. The only problem is the manuscript is 600 pages of boring and its author has turned up dead. Under deadline to deliver the book, Rheinhart Publishing calls in a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor, Angels & Demons) to work his magic on the project… in less than four weeks. To further complicate matters, former British Foreign Secretary Richard Rycart (Robert Pugh, Master and Commander) unleashes a litany of allegations implicating Lang in authorizing unethical and immoral treatment of terrorist suspects under the direction of the CIA. Forced out of the UK and into seclusion on Martha’s Vineyard, Lang and his team embed this “Ghost” (as he calls himself) in their stronghold, to finish the book, spin the war crimes allegations, and hope the storm blows over. Wishful thinking. The deeper our Ghost gets into his interviews and rewrites, the darker the subject matter becomes; unraveling a tangled web of adultery, conspiracy, and murder.

The Evidence
Not being a Polanski scholar, I approached The Ghost Writer as I would any political thriller, with keen interest and an open mind. What I found was a Hitchockian game of cat and mouse. Much like North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much, our Ghost (who is never given a first or last name) is a unwitting pawn drawn into a situation not of his making or choosing. Whereas with Cary Grant it was a case of mistaken identity and with Jimmy Stewart a case of bearing witness to something he shouldn’t have, McGregor’s character takes a paycheck to lie down in the bear trap hoping to do his job and walk away before it snaps him in two. After all, in the publishing world, the ghost writer is a non-entity, neither heralded nor crucified for his/her work. Unfortunately, curiosity gets the better of him and a dangerous onset of investigative journalism pieces together a puzzle only his predecessor was aware of… and it cost that man his life.

There will be many an allusion to Tony Blair and his ties to the Bush Administration, but this is not a message picture. The Ghost Writer is art drawing inspiration from life and a period of time where the lines between duty and ethics blur with far too much frequency. Pierce Brosnan plays Lang as a waning world figure unable to escape his own unwanted legacy. Here was a man without a political bone is his body, a lothario actor who fell hard for a beautiful political activist and ultimately became one of the most powerful men on the planet. Olivia Williams (Dollhouse) plays Lang’s wife Ruth as she might portray Hillary Clinton, a highly intelligent and capable woman who stood behind her husband offering counsel and advice, even as his sexual appetite was satiated elsewhere. Together, Brosnan and Williams provide the film’s emotional core around which everyone else orbits.

Kim Cattrall escapes her Sex and the City persona to deliver an efficient Chief of Staff with several skeletons of her own. Timothy Hutton (Leverage) and Jim Belushi (According to Jim) appear in what amounts to cameo roles, with little or no impact on the story. However, even with limited screen time, both Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton) and 93 year old Eli Wallach (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) take command of the screen offering our ghost critical pieces to his investigation.

Ultimately, it’s the collaboration between Polanski and author Robert Harris that makes the film work. Thrillers are never sure things on film. Far too many collapse under the weight of their own complexity or fall flat on their face by spoon feeding an audience perceived as too stupid to make the connections themselves. With The Ghost Writer, Harris researched real life elements and locations to craft an effective page turner, which Polanski brings to life with a flair all his own. Set in the bleakness of a harsh New England winter (played effectively by the country of Germany), he isolates his protagonists in a cold and sterile home far from what many would call civilization, set upon by war protesters and a vulturous media looking to play judge, jury, and executioner for a high profile political figure exiled on foreign soil. Throw in a healthy dose of tension-breaking humor and a Bernard Hermann-esque score from composer Alexandre Desplat and you have the makings of a great potboiler. Unfortunately, the pacing drags at times during the second and third acts and a climax heading for what we expect to be a fever pitch ends up being more of a slow burn. Neither flaw ruins the experience, though comparisons to Marty Scorsese’s Shutter Island (sharing a surprising number of similarities) will show Polanksi falling short of the “exceptionally satisfying” mark.

Closing Statement
Audiences exhausted by the epileptic seizure-inducing world of Bourne-like political thrillers will find this throwback a welcome change of pace. Despite all of his off-camera problems, Polanksi the filmmaker can still charm and alarm audiences. Let’s hope The Ghost Writer isn’t his swan song.

The Verdict
8/10

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