Post by Midge on Mar 30, 2010 13:24:34 GMT -6
The Ghost Writer is director Roman Polanski's latest thriller. It won Polanski the award for Best Director at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival. The film didn't receive any Oscar nominations and so hasn't received much attention in the media, but I think it is well worth seeing if you are in the mood for a noirish political thriller.
This is not a film that will wow you with car crashes, explosions, sex scenes or CGI animation. It's a quiet, cerebral film that will reward an observant viewer who pays attention, listens carefully and connects the dots. I've seen it twice, and I appreciated it even more on the second viewing. Despite a few implausible plot twists, The Ghost Writer holds your interest from beginning to end and features some deft directorial touches.
The film opens with an abandoned car being towed off the ferry. Then a body washes up on a beach at Martha's Vineyard, a desolate, windswept island off Massachusetts. Was it a suicide or a murder?
Cut to London, where a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) is being persuaded by his agent to work on the memoirs of a controversial ex-Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). McGregor learns that he is to a replacement for the previous ghost writer, the man whose body washed up on the beach. McGregor is at first reluctant to take on this assignment as he has little interest in politics, but the money is good so he travels to the heavily-guarded compound in Martha's Vineyard where Lang is living in exile.
Here the writer meets Lang's acid-tongued wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and his attractive blonde assistant Amelia (Kim Cattrall), who seems overly cozy with the boss. Then the writer learns that the manuscript is kept under lock and key, and he will not be allowed to copy it or even remove it from the room.
Soon angry protesters show up outside the compound. The former Prime Minister is being accused of war crimes. The story gets even bigger when CNN picks it up. Protests erupt in London as well, and the compound is soon under siege by the media.
Due to all the publicity McGregor is forced to abandon his hotel and move into his predecessor's room at the compound. There he finds some intriguing evidence that was hidden there by the other writer. It seems that the Prime Minister has some secrets in his past. The ghost writer decides to leave the compound and do some investigating of his own. But someone doesn't want him to learn the truth, and soon the he begins to realize that the next mysterious death may be his own.
The mood of The Ghost Writer is enhanced by its setting, a remote, overcast, windswept island where most of the action takes place. The cinematography is dark and gloomy, and even the characters' wardrobes are done in subdued shades of gray, black, white and dark blue. The Prime Minister's compound is a stark fortress-like structure that looks like a prison with stylish but starkly minimalist furnishings. Alexandre Desplat's score deftly enhances the moody atmosphere without calling attention to itself.
McGregor and Brosnan are good actors, but some of the supporting characters nearly steal the show. Olivia Williams is excellent as the outwardly cynical but inwardly vulnerable Ruth. Eli Wallach is memorable in a bit role as the grizzled old islander who has a startling revelation about the body that washed up on shore. On the other hand, I thought Kim Cattrall was a disappointment as the Prime Minister's loyal assistant. She speaks her lines, but doesn't bring much to the character. The most charitable thing I can say is that perhaps her character was supposed to be vapid and boring.
The title character is never named in the movie, which highlights the anonymity of his role. When he attends a publishing party for the finished memoirs, his agent quips that he must feel like a mistress at a wedding. There is an interesting directorial touch in this scene. The writer passes a note through the crowd to Ruth, who is speaking at a podium. In one long fluid shot with no cuts, we see a closeup of the note as it is passed from hand to hand to hand. There were a couple of other witty touches that I only noticed on the second viewing. For example, Ruth Lang tells the ghost that he is not a "real writer." The ghost responds that his feelings are hurt. "Ghosts are sensitive spirits," he tells her. Then Polanski cuts to a close-up shot of another kind of spirit - whiskey - being poured into a glass.
In another scene, Ruth is riding with the writer in the back of a car when she casually places her hand on top of his. Cut to the writer outside the compound washing his hand under running water. It's these little touches that elevate The Ghost Writer above the realm of ordinary political thrillers. I recommend it.
If you stay all the way through to the end credits, you will be amused to see that the word "Assistant" is abbreviated with no punctuation. There's an "ass prop manager," an "ass painter" and an "ass designer."
This is not a film that will wow you with car crashes, explosions, sex scenes or CGI animation. It's a quiet, cerebral film that will reward an observant viewer who pays attention, listens carefully and connects the dots. I've seen it twice, and I appreciated it even more on the second viewing. Despite a few implausible plot twists, The Ghost Writer holds your interest from beginning to end and features some deft directorial touches.
The film opens with an abandoned car being towed off the ferry. Then a body washes up on a beach at Martha's Vineyard, a desolate, windswept island off Massachusetts. Was it a suicide or a murder?
Cut to London, where a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) is being persuaded by his agent to work on the memoirs of a controversial ex-Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). McGregor learns that he is to a replacement for the previous ghost writer, the man whose body washed up on the beach. McGregor is at first reluctant to take on this assignment as he has little interest in politics, but the money is good so he travels to the heavily-guarded compound in Martha's Vineyard where Lang is living in exile.
Here the writer meets Lang's acid-tongued wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and his attractive blonde assistant Amelia (Kim Cattrall), who seems overly cozy with the boss. Then the writer learns that the manuscript is kept under lock and key, and he will not be allowed to copy it or even remove it from the room.
Soon angry protesters show up outside the compound. The former Prime Minister is being accused of war crimes. The story gets even bigger when CNN picks it up. Protests erupt in London as well, and the compound is soon under siege by the media.
Due to all the publicity McGregor is forced to abandon his hotel and move into his predecessor's room at the compound. There he finds some intriguing evidence that was hidden there by the other writer. It seems that the Prime Minister has some secrets in his past. The ghost writer decides to leave the compound and do some investigating of his own. But someone doesn't want him to learn the truth, and soon the he begins to realize that the next mysterious death may be his own.
The mood of The Ghost Writer is enhanced by its setting, a remote, overcast, windswept island where most of the action takes place. The cinematography is dark and gloomy, and even the characters' wardrobes are done in subdued shades of gray, black, white and dark blue. The Prime Minister's compound is a stark fortress-like structure that looks like a prison with stylish but starkly minimalist furnishings. Alexandre Desplat's score deftly enhances the moody atmosphere without calling attention to itself.
McGregor and Brosnan are good actors, but some of the supporting characters nearly steal the show. Olivia Williams is excellent as the outwardly cynical but inwardly vulnerable Ruth. Eli Wallach is memorable in a bit role as the grizzled old islander who has a startling revelation about the body that washed up on shore. On the other hand, I thought Kim Cattrall was a disappointment as the Prime Minister's loyal assistant. She speaks her lines, but doesn't bring much to the character. The most charitable thing I can say is that perhaps her character was supposed to be vapid and boring.
The title character is never named in the movie, which highlights the anonymity of his role. When he attends a publishing party for the finished memoirs, his agent quips that he must feel like a mistress at a wedding. There is an interesting directorial touch in this scene. The writer passes a note through the crowd to Ruth, who is speaking at a podium. In one long fluid shot with no cuts, we see a closeup of the note as it is passed from hand to hand to hand. There were a couple of other witty touches that I only noticed on the second viewing. For example, Ruth Lang tells the ghost that he is not a "real writer." The ghost responds that his feelings are hurt. "Ghosts are sensitive spirits," he tells her. Then Polanski cuts to a close-up shot of another kind of spirit - whiskey - being poured into a glass.
In another scene, Ruth is riding with the writer in the back of a car when she casually places her hand on top of his. Cut to the writer outside the compound washing his hand under running water. It's these little touches that elevate The Ghost Writer above the realm of ordinary political thrillers. I recommend it.
If you stay all the way through to the end credits, you will be amused to see that the word "Assistant" is abbreviated with no punctuation. There's an "ass prop manager," an "ass painter" and an "ass designer."
