The Ghost Writer

[Howard Schumann]

THE GHOST WRITER

Directed by Roman Polanski, France, Germany, U.K., (2010), 128 minutes

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, protestors 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.

GRADE: A

[Johann]

I agree with just about everything you said there, Howard.
This is one of the best films I've seen in a long time and probably the best film of Polanski's career.
The opening sequence with the shots of the ferry was impressive, as was Pawel Edelman's whole work on the whole picture. It was Kubrickian.
Slow reverse-zooms, sudden focusing, perfectly composed shots, with dazzling paintings and locales as backdrops.
And yes indeed the story is involving and an experience. Polanski is a certified Master and this work is proof.
I was thoroughly engaged with the narrative and I never wanted to have a drink of wine in my life so bad as I did while watching this film.
Every other scene somebody's drinking a glass of wine or scotch.
Ewan McGregor is flawless. Perfect character- he really makes you believe he's in danger.

What else can I say besides what you've already mentioned?
He is a genius. I agree.

The super-imposition of the political intrigue gave me the biggest thrill. Brosnan was really great. I agree with you on that as well. Great performance.
Roman Polanski can do it to you in an unbelievable way.
Last night was a priviledge.

[Howard Schumann]

Thanks Johann for your generous comments. I don't know if it is Polanski's best because I haven't seen that many but I definitely enjoyed it.

[Chris Knipp]

I'll post my review of the film, which I've just written on re-watching it, having seen it a month ago but not been able to write a review, being deep in the Lincoln Center screenings then. But what I've written can add little or nothing to what's been said here already. Your review is excellent, Howard, and very informative, doing justice both to the film and the director; I don't give much information and fail even to outline the plot elements in any detail. My emphasis is on the fact that this is a kind of rebuke to today's noisy, meaningless blockbusters. It brings back memories of a time when mainstream American movies were intelligent and thoughtful and allowed one time to appreciate the script and the acting in ways that indie or foreign fims still do; a time when a movie could be thoroughly entertaining but also smart. Polanski shows you can make an exciting, suspenseful action film without explosions and machine guns or an otherwise bombastic soundtrack. I did speak a bit about the context of Polanski's life and its resonance with elements in the movie. It's no coincidence that the movie makes some sharp jabs at the USA and the Uk and their claims to moral probity.

If you'd seen The Ghost Writer where I did last night, Johan, at the Cerrito Rialto in El Cerrito, California, you could have enjoyed a glass or two of wine as well as a good meal while watching. This theater, newly renovated, serves drinks and good food, delivered to your seat.

I think the court in the film is the International Criminal Court, which tries individuals for war crimes, rather than the World Court, which would be the UN International Court of Justice, which resolves " matters of international law disputed by state governments." The two get confused.

"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. "--Good.

"McGregor is a blank slate,"--Well put.

"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."--details well worth noting.

"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."--Very well said. To have made a film of this caliber under such pressure shows the kind of fortitude and brilliance that Polanski has had all his life. He's a survivor, in every sense.

[Chris Knipp]

Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor in The Ghost Writer

Roman Polanski: The Ghost Writer (2010)

Review by Chris Knipp

A ghost writer hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy. -- Movie blurb.

The Ghost Writer is both very up-to-date and a throwback, because it's an obvious allusion to contemporary politics, but also very much like a well-made Hollywood movie thriller of the good old days. Critics seem confused, some saying it's "minor" or "far from his best," others affirming that it's downright masterful. It's not quite on the level of Roman Polanski's best, but not much can equal Chinatown, the greatest neo-noir ever made, or The Pianist, one of the most haunting of Holocaust films. It's the job of a pro to make his work look easy, and The Ghost Writer is apparently simple, yet layered. Outwardly conventional, it's above all entertaining. It looks, some think, like the kind of movie Polanski could "pull off in his sleep" -- a silly remark, since he's never done a story much like this. Perfection is incomprehensible to the mediocre. Some reviewers have even found The Ghost Writer yawn-inducing and wished it had more violence. Such are the rewards today of old-fashioned craftsmanship.

This film, which could almost be Hitchcock if Hitchcock had been more into politics, is a reminder of all we're missing in the post-blockbuster era when movies out of Hollywood tend to be loud CGI horrors, kitsch computer animations about bulbous shiny creatures, or all of the above, tarted up with further new technologies and the added retro wonder of -- Hey presto, 1955 again! 3D! Polanski makes up-to-date use of cell phones and, most notably, a female GPS voice in a compact BMW. But he doesn't use any explosions here, and only one significant gunshot. What are the results of this parsimony? Well, conversations that matter; facial expressions that matter; background music that artfully guides, rather than rudely forces, audience response. A mainstream movie for grownups.

The politics is both obvious and subtle. Clearly this tale of a writer called in to do over the autobiography of an English ex-PM when his predecessor has mysteriously died refers to the human rights violations of the Bush War on Terror era and Tony Blair's collusion in crimes -- all made worse and blunter here. But the Manchurian Candidate suggestion of a totally manipulated western leader, again not at all subtle, can't but make one ponder, especially when evoked in terms of campus recruitment during halcyon days at 1970's Cambridge, with student theatricals, costume parties, puffs of marijuana. A politician who was more of an actor than anything else. A smart, sexy woman. Cherchez la femme! An expanding world of manipulation, exile, menace, humiliation, and temptation.

We begin with the sell-out of a hack who's "not a proper writer," The Ghost (Ewan McGregor), who has no other name, a Brit virtually trapped by his American agent into accepting the lucrative job of redoing the memoirs of ex-PM Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). Then the writer is whisked to Lang in exile in a modernist fortress-like house on Cape Cod. Lang's various bodyguards and servants and attendant ladies are like the attendants of a posh prison, or are for the Ghost anyway. He manages to bypass them, and sleep with the wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams). Lang's secretary Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall) is the sexiest of prison guards -- she has the key to the manuscript the Ghost must finish. Why is it so closely guarded? The Ghost finds it to be a wonderful cure for insomnia, but it seems to hide some secret.

Polanski's way of making the film enhances its resonance. His locations are fake, New England and New York shot in Germany. His Cape Cod is a little colder, harsher, and uglier than usual, but its menace seems real enough. Links with Polanski's own experience may seem obvious, but they're so numerous you wonder at the man's ingenuity. How did he find all this in a novel by Robert Harris? When Lang's ex-minister refers his human rights violations to the International Criminal Court it seems he won't be able to return to England. Hints of unsafe exile abound. Though be it noted, Polanski is not an "exile" from the US and does not want to live there, his ironic depiction of Lang shows he knows what it's like to live in expensive isolation. After all he did edit the film under house arrest in Switzerland.

The Ghost is "not a proper writer" but becomes a powerful detective and investigator, a truth-teller working for liars. The film dramatizes the decline of publishing into cheap journalism for fast money, instant books made to make a bundle off the latest scandal, bosses who like writers most who deliver fast. The Ghost gets jacked around (including sex he says is "not a good idea" but indulges in anyway) but manages to be highly effective despite the danger he is obviously in of being gobbled up by forces far greater than he is.

In this elegant, highly polished and conventional film in which the political and the personal constantly resonate, every actor gets a chance to shine. Ewan McGregor has never been better -- the fact that as an actor he has come to seem a skillful hack makes for perfect irony in the casting. His character is just that, but a neutrality that can be boring in some of his roles makes him an appealing Everyman. Pierce Brosnan's Lang is a complexly shallow man, a hostile charmer, a garrulous speaker with nothing to say. The wife, the irresistible Olivia Williams, wearing her role like a glove, is sensuous and angry. Kim Cattrell is a sexy automaton, a perfect appendage of the chilly mansion. Tom Wilksonson delivers wonderful menace. No one disappoints. The Ghost Writer makes everybody look good.

[Howard Schumann]

Very well done. It's a shame yours didn't get published. Perhaps there is an outlet you can send it to. Others ought to have the opportunity to read it. It is one of your best and thanks for your generous comments on my review.

[Chris Knipp]

That's kind of you, but I still think your review is more informative. Anyway, mine appears in four places on the web, so that is something.

Chris

[Johann]

Wine and cinema go very well together.

The Ghost Writer has a staying power, like some critic whose name eludes me said about John Sayle's Lonestar.
I love how details slowly emerge and throw you onto another mystery. I thought that Ewan's "blank slate" was going to die the second time he went on the ferry. Visually arresting film. (Pawel Edelman- brilliant cameraman.)

Yes, GREAT review (again) Chris. Doesn't Polanski have a "staying power" in the psyche?
And I also agree that the conditions under which this Masterpiece was crafted...jail/exile...it added a very taut urgency to the storytelling.
I'm still thinking about it and AVATAR. Avatar's ships and hardware...awesome.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. THE GHOST WRITER may have staying power -- I certainly hope so -- but I also think there is more there than meets the eye and in this case I benefited from a repeat viewing. Some of it slips by you.

[Michuk]

Remarkable, old fashioned, brilliantly directed political fiction thriller, the weakest point of it being the story. Great acting, entertaining and thought provoking at the same time. Something both regular movie-goers and hardcore cinemaphiles can enjoy.

Chris, I liked your explanation why this movie is so much subtler than similar attempts by American filmmakers (recent works by Oliver Stone, anyone?). I saw it, I felt it, but I did not know how I shall put it in words.

BTW, I think the weakest part of the story is still the script. The dialogues are perfect but the actual story could be a bit more realistic.

Although if someone told me that the Polish president with all his best people and all army chiefs gets killed in a plane in Russia heading to celebrate the Katyn memorial and that the funeral ceremony would be then disturbed by enormous clouds of ash originating from an Icelandic volcano with an unpronouncable name, I would call it not only unrealistic but just plain stupid. Life writes best stories -- that's certain.

[Chris Knipp]

What you mean is life writes the most implausible stories.

As for the story in THE GHOST WRITER, I don't think it's meant to be taken as literally true or possible but a kind of satirical commentary on recent events, making use of devices from movies,with clever updates, like the sinister chase or pursuit that is guided by a GPS system. There's irony even in the setting, which can't be literally where it is but is Germany standing in for New England. I take it we know that and are expected to know that. As when Cary Grant or James Steward played lead roles in Hitchcock films, were' expected to know that Ewan McGregor is a super famous movie actor (from STAR WARS) playing a writer. IT doesn't matter, because the man he has to deal with is a fraudulent British leader, and Pierce Brosnan (very good) is not a real leader, but an actor, which is okay, because the leader he is playing is a fraud.

I always say it's risky to say a story isn't believable or "couldn't have happened," when, as you show in your example real events are just as implausible if not more so. THE GHOST WRITER is for a general audience but a sophisticated one and that kind of audience knows stories or movies aren't copies of literal events but commentaries on them.

[oscar jubis]

I'm a late-comer to this film and to this thread. It seems to me in retrospect that this year in film kicked off with three outstanding English-language films: GREENBERG, Andrea Arnold's FISH TANK and THE GHOST WRITER. I missed a number of films in theaters in Winter and early Spring due to the local film festival, travel, and working on my book. Arnold's is the only one I got to see in a theater (twice, go figure). GREENBERG works perfectly well at home but I feel really sorry about missing THE GHOST WRITER when it played here in theaters. There seems to be nothing to debate about it as all four of us agree on its merits.The film has its detractors, as Chris pointed out. Like the Variety reviewer wishing it had more action.

[Chris Knipp]

That is true, though of course FISH TAKK was released in Britain last year. Incidentally it appears Leah Rozen of People Magazine is the one who said LONE STAR was "a great film with staying power," as quoted in various DVD blurbs for the film. Indeed THE GHOST WRITER is beautiful and framed in ways that make it best on a big screen. Probably obvious that some don't "get" this film because they are numbed by hyped-up actioners today. A Hitchcock film would flop in theaters today.

[tabuno]

Perhaps David Lynch in a television series opening of Twin Peaks (1990) provided a much more ominous and haunting opening of a dead body than The Ghost Writer (2010). The Ghost Writer's dead body scene isn't really that suspicious, the audience is only led to believe it is so by the premise of the movie itself, not the scene and there is really no follow-through on this scene except for later on when suspicions develop conveniently by a series of accidental discoveries or meetings. Truly the Ghost Writer in this movie as he himself explains is no investigative reporter and his behavior in this movie lends much support to that claim, perhaps to the detriment of the suspense and interest in the movie, for this man is no Audrey Hepburn as in Charade (1963) or Cary Grant as in North by Northwest (1959) nor even a Wil Smith as in the much more riveting Enemy of the State (1998).

The idea of overlaying a fictional storyline over a real biographical history of Tony Blair is itself a false premise to start with and the incorporation of a U.S. Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice look-alike, made the effort to this false facade even more demeaning and pretentious in its attempt to make a political statement based on a pure fantasy as Tony Blair never did face such an indictment by a World Court. As this movie genre was about a political thriller, not a science fiction, alternative world genre, Robert Harris, screenplay writer, takes the audience on an uncomfortable ride of untruths. Even with Enemy of the State (1998), the screenplay and plot outline could be, might be feasible, may have occurred and covered up by the CIA and the powers that be, allowing the audience some measure of suspension of disbelief, but not in this hugely publically news ridden storyline in The Ghost Writer when the fictional media is all over the front page of newspapers and television screens of a phony Blair-like figure being investigated. The boundaries of fiction and reality have been torn asunder and gone beyond cinematic convenience to distortion for possible purpose of political posturing.

The screenplay incorporates the stereotypical affairs and intrigues that have all been used torturously in too many movies and worn out its welcome. Brosnan's secretary assistant's performance while solid seemed to be underdeveloped and missing some of the more overt overtones to really establish a strong tension in the movie, particularly the last few scenes of the movie seem to occur in such an outburst of emotion that has not been established before in the movie and in some ways she comes across as false and pretentious as the underlying movie itself. The two climaxes of this movie with Brosnan's predictable ending scene that is then abruptly edited, fast forwarded to the ending scenes, has McGregor's character conveniently and not exactly rationally missing a taxi and then finding his own climactic scene which seems again a little too simplistic because McGregor's character eventually comes across more bumbling especially as the character allows himself to run away instead mingling in public (as Matt Damon in Bourne Identity would suggest) where it's safer and his character is in some ways unsympathetic as he even brushes off rudely a guard when he leaves Brosnan's fortress towards the end of the movie.

One of the redeeming features of this movie is the character performance of Brosnan who is provided an opportunity to really extend his character on screen beyond those he has been confined with and almost exceeds his much earlier but perhaps best performance in the underrated and little seen or talked about movie Nomads (1986).

Rated: B