4.5* Movie Review: The Ghost Writer--One Of 2010's Best!
Mar 7, 2010 
4.5* Review By James R. Holland
Roman Polanski Still Knows How To Make A Thriller
While this isn’t the equal of Rosemary’s Baby or Chinatown, it’s probably on a par with The Pianist and it’s proof that true cinematic geniuses don’t necessarily lose their touch for film making no matter what other chaos is swirling around their private lives. This film, which is shot in color, has a very noticeable black and white texture about it. Most black and white films tend to be more dramatic and Polanski and his cinematographer make perfect use of this drama enhancing effect. 
Ewan McGregor plays the British ghost writer hired to complete the memoir of Pierce Brosnan’s character the former Prime Minister of Britain Adam Lang. The first ghost writer hired has washed ashore under mysterious circumstances after he fell off a ferryboat and drowns. Perhaps it was just a personal thing, but Ewan McGregor very much reminded me of a much younger Roman Polanski. That doesn’t stop him from doing a first-class acting job. He has many scenes where he must show doubt and hesitancy without using words. As would be expected, the entire cast is well directed by Polanski and the pacing, stark scenes, and the intimate close-ups of the various characters interacting all have the Polanski style stamped on them. Polanski knows how to place the movie camera right inside a group of people having a conversation so the audience isn’t just observing the scene from afar, but is right in the middle of the discussion.
As in Chinatown, it’s difficult for the ghost writer to figure out who is telling him the truth and who is deceiving him. The film is packed with heavily armed sinister-looking characters. The Ghost spends much of his time wondering whether he is soon going to be turning into his nickname. From the very beginning of the assignment he doesn’t really want to take the job because it feels wrong to him. A quarter of a 
million dollar paycheck for one-month’s work finally persuades him he needs to go to America and work with the Ex-Prime Minister who is vacationing or hiding out on a cold, dreary, constantly raining Martha’s Vineyard.
This film isn’t going to send droves of people to vacation off the coast of Massachusetts. Lang is hiding out in a poured concrete fortress-like pillbox of a vacation home surrounded by guards, fences, and police who use mirrors to check for bombs or terrorists concealed under arriving vehicles. Security is tight on Martha’s Vineyard. The Prime Minister looks like he is expecting an invasion and probably has the guns of Navarone concealed inside his cement I.M. Pei looking beach bunker.
The script is tight and moves along swiftly. Before sitting down to watch the film be certain to visit the powder room because you won’t want to so during the film. It’s nice to hear dialogue spoken by adults where much more is said that just words. That may be simply because the British always sound more eloquent than Americans or it’s because each member of the cast speaks volumes even when not speaking. Kim Cattrall as Amelia Bly. Olivia Williams as Ruth Lang, Tom Wilkerson as Paul Emmett all do terrific jobs in the supporting cast. Ditto for Eli Wallach, Timothy Hutton and Robert Pugh. James Belushi was in the film somewhere but went unrecognized by me. That fact usually means he was doing such a good job creating his character that his real identify was completely submerged in that of the fictional character on the screen.
There is some nice humor that caused ripples of chuckles to sweep through the historic Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, MA where this reviewer attended a packed Saturday evening showing. The audience was sitting on the edge of their seats throughout most of the movie just trying to figure out who were the good guys, who was sleeping with whom, and who were the real bad guys and were they really the bad guys or were the only truly bad guys the terrorists who were taking their water boarding torture cases to the World Court?
Everyone looked like he or she could be an assassin. Nothing was as it appeared. It was like being on a jury during a several day trial. If the lawyers are doing a good job the opinions of the jury will shift back and forth throughout the trial as new evidence is presented or old testimony discredited. Sometimes jurors feel like they are ping-pong balls. That’s precisely how the Ghost and the audience felt as the story unfolded and opinions flip-flopped. This is a writer’s story and the portrait painted of the publishing industry isn’t a pretty one. The director sticks with the written word theme throughout the movie and even the end credits are in the form of a simple typed draft manuscript. Naturally, the manuscript plays an important roll throughout this movie adaptation. This is one of the best films of 2010.
James R. Holland is a film editor, producer, and author--most recently of Adventure Photographer (A Bit of Boston Books/ 2009). He writes MOVIE NIGHT REVIEWS exclusively for Basil & Spice. Visit James R. Holland's Writer's Page.
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Megan J.