Director: Roman Polanski (Chinatown, Knife in the Water, Death and the Maiden, The Pianist)
Story: Robert Harris
Screenplay: Roman Polanski
Producers: Roman Polanski, Alain Sarde, Robert Benmussa
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running time: 128 min.

(4/5)

Though probably billed as a political thriller, I would categorize Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer as more of a political intrigue picture since there’s nothing I would describe as particularly thrilling happening throughout most of the movie. The vagueness with which this story is told, yet somehow maintaining its firm grasp on the internal wiring controlling our fight or flight senses is what escalates this picture to a higher level of playing field than your standard, Hollywood political/espionage tripe. The slow burn of a plot doesn’t so much unfold for us; rather it is like a hazy sea of odd mystery ad happenstance that we’re forced to swim through in order to get to the surface.

Former Prime Minister Adam Lange (Brosnan) is working on getting his memoirs put to paper and it seems his friend and colleague of many years, who was putting the book together for him, has met a mysterious demise. A new ghost writer (McGregor) is brought on to put the finishing touches on what his predecessor had already started. Just as he begins his work with interviews and shadowing the Prime Minister, a political scandal breaks out in which Lange is accused of war crimes – specifically the illegal extradition and torture of terror suspects. As The Ghost delves deeper into Lange’s past and embeds himself closer with friends, colleagues and family, he begins to discover pieces of secret details from the proverbial past lives of some of the players in this political world, which could prove to be deadly for The Ghost if he fits them together or delves too deeply into this web of suspicious intrigue.

This is Hitchcock-like lore at its finest. Most recent examples of a similar style you can find with Woody Allen and his Match Point or Cassandra’s Dream tales of deception and suspense. Because much of the story takes place on a private estate of a cold, blustery, isolated island with the only way on or off by ferry, coupled with the very slow burn nature of the suspense and the feeling of mistrust for everyone within the story (even if you don’t know why) gives this foreboding British thriller an aura of cold confusion and devilish deceit. One might feel like at any moment there will be a crazy car chase or loud gun fight. Luckily, Polanski is able to build on this emotion and then build on it and build on it some more without these crescendo clichés until you feel like you just can’t take it anymore. In other words, masterful film making.

The story obviously infers wrongdoing from former PM Tony Blair and the Bush administration; lots of chuckles echoed through the theater when a clear caricature of Condoleeza Rice appears on screen for a few seconds. Despite these lazy distractions, the finger pointing at the political figureheads in the movie are almost beside the point as we’re clearly more interested in the mysterious actions of our characters that suggest some sort of mystery or cover-up is afoot. But again, we (and our lead) don’t even really know what we’re investigating. There are some puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit together which may suggest something sinister is going on, or they’re simply coincidental pieces of information that are red herrings and actually mean nothing.

The sort of loose and vague way in which we’re led through this story is portrayed wonderfully from all involved. Stand outs are Olivia Williams as the distressed wife of a powerful man caught in the spotlight of the world stage. She plays distraught and mistrusting yet unrevealing and powerfully relentless at the same time. Her sometimes vague demeanor adds nicely to the film’s ability to make an audience second guess itself and potentially guide a person down the wrong path. Kim Catrall is miles away from her Sex and the City character as a stuffy, yet unswervingly loyal, corporate assistant. As our lead, Ewan McGregor is actually a man we know very little about. One moment very naive and the next rather pompous and sarcastic, he plays the proverbial ghost just wonderfully. His sarcastic wit gives the film several moments of incredibly subtle humor that is never over used, but rather realistic and revealing. Throw in the always great Tom Wilkinson doing what he does best, an unconventional (yet convincing) role from Jim Belushi, a gimmick free Pierce Brosnan and some effective familiar faces from Eli Wallach and Timothy Hutton and it’s one great performance/role after another.

This is much more of a mood piece than anything else. The Ghost Writer is handsome as a cold hell and captures our attention with character, setting and details that blur our internal presumptions. As I mentioned, we swim through the unknown with our lead rather than unravel a mystery. There may or may not be a contrived twist involved, but that’s the beauty here – you simply don’t know and by the end, it doesn’t really matter either way; and that’s a good thing.