It takes an exiled world figure to know one
The ghost (Ewan McGregor) toasts a brief victorious moment.
(Summit Entertainment)
The Ghost Writer
Running time: 128 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13 (profanity, adult situations, nudity, drug reference)
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"Who are you?"
"I'm your ghost," Ewan McGregor's character says to Great Britain's former prime minister in Roman Polanski's crafty suspense-thriller "The Ghost Writer."
Perhaps by accident, perhaps not, Polanski and one of the key characters in his first contemporary thriller in more than 20 years are mysterious public figures in exile.
Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) is conveniently on a U.S. lecture tour as news begins to leak in Great Britain linking the former prime minister with unscrupulous activities including unauthorized torture of terrorist suspects.
Polanski, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker, is currently under house arrest in Switzerland. The acclaimed director of "Rosemary's Baby," "The Pianist" and others continues to fight extradition back to the United States on an old charge of taking flight after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in the late 1970s.
Old news or not, Polanski's chess game with international justice remains in the news. Because of the exile/exile connection, it constantly spices up the mystique of "The Ghost Writer."
Oddly, Polanski's latest film unfolds primarily in the United States; in a chilly, well-guarded seaside island fortress of Martha's Vineyard.
McGregor's ghostwriter, who remains unnamed throughout, hops over from London to hunker down for a whirlwind, one-month rewrite of the former prime minister's memoirs.
Polanski, of course, did not venture stateside to the Boston area for reasons made clear above. So what we get with "The Ghost Writer" is a danger-around-every-corner suspense-laden tale set in the U.S., but filmed over three months on location in Germany and at Studio Babelsberg in Berlin.
Polanski's creative heart, however, resides somewhere in "Chinatown," U.S.A.
Not since the brilliant cat-and-mouse game that was "Chinatown" in 1974 has Polanski -- or cinema in general, really -- examined political power boiled down to this raw state of hubris. Aided by an eerie musical score that wails bouncy imminent danger, suspense literally pops off the screen.
The ghost has no interest in politics, really. He's just out to make a quick $250,000 if he can rewrite a politico's memoirs in the unreal deadline time of one month. Once he meets Lang, however, skeletons begin falling out of the closet almost literally. The previous ghostwriter died suddenly and mysteriously a couple of weeks before the new one arrives.
Danger lurks, whiskey swirls in glasses and Lang's frosty wife Ruth (superbly performed by Olivia Willams) warms up to the point of toastiness to the hired wordsmith while hubby is away having dinner with U.S. heads of state.
What a cast. Brosnan, last seen as the front end of a horse (actually a Centaur) in "Percy Jackson & the Olympians," is pitch perfect as the slithery prime minister. McGregor ("Amelia") is on target as well.
And they have stiff competition from the ladies in the cast. In addition to Williams (also superb as Miss Stubbs in "An Education"), Kim Cattrall, of "Sex and the City" fame, struts her dramatic stuff beautifully as the prime minister's all-too-personal personal assistant.
Polanski fashioned this fascinating intersection of danger, conspiracy and more danger from the 2008 best seller "The Ghost" by Robert Harris. Harris, who conspired with Polanski on the screenplay, has said the movie improves on his printed work.
"The Ghost Writer" is a major film from a hugely talented filmmaker. Earlier this week, Polanski took best director honors at the Berlin Film Festival.
"I'm your ghost," Ewan McGregor's character says to Great Britain's former prime minister in Roman Polanski's crafty suspense-thriller "The Ghost Writer."
Perhaps by accident, perhaps not, Polanski and one of the key characters in his first contemporary thriller in more than 20 years are mysterious public figures in exile.
Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) is conveniently on a U.S. lecture tour as news begins to leak in Great Britain linking the former prime minister with unscrupulous activities including unauthorized torture of terrorist suspects.
Polanski, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker, is currently under house arrest in Switzerland. The acclaimed director of "Rosemary's Baby," "The Pianist" and others continues to fight extradition back to the United States on an old charge of taking flight after pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in the late 1970s.
Old news or not, Polanski's chess game with international justice remains in the news. Because of the exile/exile connection, it constantly spices up the mystique of "The Ghost Writer."
Oddly, Polanski's latest film unfolds primarily in the United States; in a chilly, well-guarded seaside island fortress of Martha's Vineyard.
McGregor's ghostwriter, who remains unnamed throughout, hops over from London to hunker down for a whirlwind, one-month rewrite of the former prime minister's memoirs.
Polanski, of course, did not venture stateside to the Boston area for reasons made clear above. So what we get with "The Ghost Writer" is a danger-around-every-corner suspense-laden tale set in the U.S., but filmed over three months on location in Germany and at Studio Babelsberg in Berlin.
Polanski's creative heart, however, resides somewhere in "Chinatown," U.S.A.
Not since the brilliant cat-and-mouse game that was "Chinatown" in 1974 has Polanski -- or cinema in general, really -- examined political power boiled down to this raw state of hubris. Aided by an eerie musical score that wails bouncy imminent danger, suspense literally pops off the screen.
The ghost has no interest in politics, really. He's just out to make a quick $250,000 if he can rewrite a politico's memoirs in the unreal deadline time of one month. Once he meets Lang, however, skeletons begin falling out of the closet almost literally. The previous ghostwriter died suddenly and mysteriously a couple of weeks before the new one arrives.
Danger lurks, whiskey swirls in glasses and Lang's frosty wife Ruth (superbly performed by Olivia Willams) warms up to the point of toastiness to the hired wordsmith while hubby is away having dinner with U.S. heads of state.
What a cast. Brosnan, last seen as the front end of a horse (actually a Centaur) in "Percy Jackson & the Olympians," is pitch perfect as the slithery prime minister. McGregor ("Amelia") is on target as well.
And they have stiff competition from the ladies in the cast. In addition to Williams (also superb as Miss Stubbs in "An Education"), Kim Cattrall, of "Sex and the City" fame, struts her dramatic stuff beautifully as the prime minister's all-too-personal personal assistant.
Polanski fashioned this fascinating intersection of danger, conspiracy and more danger from the 2008 best seller "The Ghost" by Robert Harris. Harris, who conspired with Polanski on the screenplay, has said the movie improves on his printed work.
"The Ghost Writer" is a major film from a hugely talented filmmaker. Earlier this week, Polanski took best director honors at the Berlin Film Festival.
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