Movie: The Ghost Writer

• Director: Roman Polanski
• Release Date:
• Writers: Robert Harris
• Run Time: 128
• Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Tagline:

Review: Got to see this at a pre-release screening and wound up chewing my thumbnails down to the quick with the tension!

Though I am a huge Roman Polanski fan (of his work, not necessarily the man) I haven really been crazy about any of his films since “Death and the Maiden” (“The Pianist” was technically superb but left me cold). At last, my patience has been rewarded.

“The Ghost Writer” is a stylish, edge-of-your-seat political thriller that, on the basis of suspense, twists, corruption, and an ensnared hero unable to grasp the enormity of what hes up against, can be looked on as a contemporary companion piece to Roman Polanskis “Chinatown.” Its Polanski reveling in the art of skillful storytelling, and at age 76, its clear he has not lost his touch.

Collaborating with author Robert Harris from his novel “The Ghost” (film title expanded, no doubt, to avoid misleading Polanski fans who would assume a return to the supernatural) Polanski has fashioned a real nail-biter that, thanks to the solid performances and deft plotting, plays extremely well whether you like politics or know much about foreign policy.

Ewan McGregor is a writer hired to ghost-write the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan) after the previous collaborator commits suicide (maybe). Almost immediately life begins to get, shall I say, complicated for McGregor as he is shuttled off to a spartan, fortress-like mansion on the American East Coast to work on the book and there encounters a catalog of the kind of slightly-off kilter characters that Polanski casts and directs so well. Theres the unsettlingly mercurial Prime Minister, his caustic wife (Olivia Williams, who, simply put, steals the movie out from under everyones noses), the icy assistant (Kim Cattrall, better than I thought she could ever be), and an entire corps of strange and secretive supporting players, all the better to keep you guessing just what is going on up to the absolutely socko conclusion.

Can say what readers of the novel will think of the film, but as someone who went into the film ignorant of the plot, I have to say it was a real thrill ride and held many didn -see-that-coming surprises. So many of Polanskis trademark themes are showcased (black humor, a preoccupation with “foreignness,” paranoia, the pervasiveness of evil), but best of all, its a pleasure to see an intelligent thriller that is extremely well acted.