An involving story that deeply immerses us in the experience
7 March 2010 | by Howard Schumann (Vancouver, B.C.) –

Instead of using fast cuts and other modern cinematic gimmicks, Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer relies on an involving story that deeply immerses us in the experience, a tribute to his immense skill as a director. Based on the novel Ghost written by Robert Harris, the film is about an unnamed author (Ewan McGregor) who is hired to complete the memoirs of former British Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) after the previous ghost writer was found dead, his body washed up on a beach in New England.

Although it is a suspense thriller, The Ghost Writer also makes a sharp political statement, creating a main character that very much resembles former British Prime Minister Tony Blair (Harris, himself was a strong supporter of Blair until he broke with him over Britain's participation in the war in Iraq and Blair's subordination to U.S. foreign policy interests). Because Polanski was banned from the U.S. because of an event that occurred 32 years ago, the film was shot in Germany and its depiction of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts is recreated on the island of Sylt in the North Sea.

Opening as a ferry disembarks suspiciously leaving one car behind, the film establishes a mood of unease and danger from the outset, aided by an atmospheric score by Alexandre Desplat. People talk about the drowning of the previous ghost writer as being either an accident or a suicide yet, like many CIA-assisted suicides, it is suspicious right off the bat (or off the boat) and the new author soon finds himself buried in intrigue when he visits Lang in his security-entrenched compound on the seacoast.

McGregor is a blank slate, an ambitious young man presumably just out to take in a huge paycheck but after reading Lang's autobiography and finding it to be a "cure for insomnia," he is determined to have the former Prime Minister share his life and work in a more authentic manner. The writer is invited to stay in the compound where Lang resides with his very articulate and somewhat bitter wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) who suspects his assistant Amelia (Kim Cattrall) to be his mistress. McGregor's autobiographical work is interrupted when he hears in the news that Lang has been accused of war crimes by a former minister and is being investigated by the World Court.

To appear to be engaging in business as usual, Lang travels to Washington in a private jet owned by a company with a name similar to Halliburton, where he is defended against the accusations by a State Secretary who looks very much like Condoleezza Rice. At home, however, protesters show up on the island together with hordes of press and Ruth has to turn to the author for some physical and mental solace as the plot swoops and dives into unpredictable twists and turns that keeps us off balance until the powerful conclusion.

Heading an outstanding cast, Brosnan delivers a strong performance that strikes the right balance between fear and arrogance and McGregor is also pitch perfect. Winner of a Silver Bear in Berlin for Best Director, The Ghost Writer shows Polanski at the top of his form and in total control of the medium. Even though he had to complete the final editing of his film in a Swiss jail and under house arrest in Switzerland, the fact that it still bears the stamp of his genius is a tribute not only to his art but also to his character.

Trivia

Roger Ebert
February 24, 2010  

In Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," a man without a past rattles around in the life of a man with too much of one. He begins by reading the work of an earlier ghost who mysteriously drowned, and finds it boring and conventional. Hired to pep up the manuscript to justify a $10 million advance, he discovers material to make it exciting, all right, and possibly deadly.

This movie is the work of a man who knows how to direct a thriller. Smooth, calm, confident, it builds suspense instead of depending on shock and action. The actors create characters who suggest intriguing secrets. The atmosphere -- a rain-swept Martha's Vineyard in winter -- has an ominous, gray chill, and the main interior looks just as cold.

This is the beach house being used by Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), a former British prime minister so inspired by Tony Blair that he might as well be wearing a nametag. Lang has one of those households much beloved by British authors of country house mysteries, in which everyone is a potential suspect -- of something, anyway.

Lang's wife Ruth (Olivia Williams), smart and bitter, met Lang at Cambridge. His aide Amelia (Kim Cattrall), smart and devious, is having an affair with him. The wife knows, and isn't above referring to it in front of the Ghost. Security men lurk about, and a couple of service workers look rather sinister.

Just as his new ghost writer starts work, Lang is accused by his former foreign minister of sanctioning the kidnapping and torture of suspects. The World Court prepares an indictment. It would be unwise for Lang to return to Britain, and he flees to Washington for a photo op with the U.S. administration, unnamed, although the Secretary of State looks a whole lot like Condi Rice.

The PM's story is based on a best-seller by Robert Harris, who co-wrote the screenplay with Polanski. He implies parallels between his story and the Blair and (both) Bush administrations, but uses a light touch and sly footwork so that not every viewer will necessarily connect the dots. There is also a loud clanging alarm inviting comparison between Polanski's Lang, an exile sought by a court, and Polanski himself. This is also the fourth thriller in recent months to make a villain of a corporation obviously modeled on Halliburton.

The Ghost is left to his own devices in a house haunted by the unsaid, and Polanski slips into a pure filmmaking mode. I won't describe what the Ghost searches for, but I will tell you that Polanski evokes Hitchcock in a conversation with an elderly local (Eli Wallach) and some forbidding beach scenes. And that he is masterful in the way he shows the dead former Ghost providing the new one with directions, so to speak, leading to a possible source.

There is also a Hitchcock touch in visuals where an incriminating note is passed from hand to hand; the scene is so well done that it distracts from the fact that the Ghost didn't need the information in the note to arrive at the same inference.There are a few other loose ends. The film seems to have a high incidence of black cars designed to be used as murder weapons.

It's far from clear what Ruth's emotional state is on one rainy night. The Ghost himself seems too much a lightweight to explain his daring sleuthing. But the performances are so convincing in detail that they distract us from our questions. McGregor's character has no family, little pride and much insouciance, but is very smart and doesn't enjoy his intelligence being insulted.

And Olivia Williams projects the air of a wife who is committed to her husband in more than expected ways"The  Ghost Writer" is handsome, smooth and persuasive. It is a Well-Made Film. Polanski at 76 provides a reminder of directors of the past who were raised on craft, not gimmicks, and depended on a deliberate rhythm of editing rather than mindless quick cutting. The film immerses you in its experience. It's a reminder that you can lose yourself in a story because all a film really wants to do is tell it.