THE GHOST WRITER [Review 1]

 

Polanski.  Roman Polanski.  God, I love Roman Polanski’s films, he is one of my cinematic heroes.  From “Repulsion”, “The Tenant”, “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Chinatown”, if these aren’t some of the greatest films of all time, I don’t know what is.  This is Polanski’s latest film and he is back in Hitchcock mode.  I must admit that his last “Hitchcockian” thriller, “Frantic”, is not one of my favourites, but this was not going to stop me from looking forward to this film.  Right off the top I’ll say that I enjoyed this a lot more than “Frantic”.   

The story centres around Ewan McGregor, who plays the (unnamed) ghost writer of the ex-Prime Minister of Britain, Adam Lang (played by Pierce Brosnan), who is writing his memoirs.  His predecessor had been recently found dead on a beach (which may or may not be suspicious) and because of this, he has been brought on to finish the book.  Soon after beginning, he starts to uncover a political conspiracy that may be the reason the previous ghost writer lost his life.   

Part of the fun of the film is going along with its twists and turns, so I wont divulge any more of the plot, but I will say that after the first half an hour of political mumbo-jumbo and setting the story up, it settles down into Hitchcock mode and does it really well, with McGregor being a good substitute for Cary Grant.  The biggest flaw of the film is the casting of Kim Cattrall in a key role, she was just terrible.  Honestly, I don’t know how she continues to get work, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that she has been good in (maybe “Big Trouble In Little China”), and it surprised me that a master like Polanski would cast her in one of his films. 

An interesting thing about “The Ghost Writer” are the reflections of Polanski’s own life and troubles, made more poignant due to the events that happened after he finished this film.  It would be wrong of me to not mention the fantastic cameo by the wonderful Eli Wallach, proving that he hasn’t lost his touch.  One final note, the MIFF guide stated that the film went for 95 minutes, which turned out to be wrong as it actually goes 128 minutes.  This was causing me no end of frustration as I knew that it would impact on the beginning of my next film, so this frustration may have diminished my enjoyment of the last half hour (the end is brilliantly staged), meaning I may rate the film even higher after a repeat viewing.  Either way, it is still a great film and hopefully not Polanski’s last.

3.5 Stars - Viewed at the 2010 Melbourne International Film Festival