The Ghost Writer

(2010)

Directed by

Roman Polanski

Review by Terry Plucknett

Posted - 3/25/10

It’s one thing to keep pieces of the puzzle hidden from the audience to add suspense to the film, but this was just ridiculous!

The latest film from the exiled Roman Polanski ironically takes place almost entirely in the land where he is not allowed (which means you know it was not shot on location).  The Ghost Writer tells the story of a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) which is a person who takes the thoughts and ideas of a famous person and makes it sound eloquent and profound for a book.  This is used mainly for autobiographies.  This ghost, who is never given a name, is hired to help write the autobiography of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) whose former ghost was found dead under mysterious circumstances.  The rough draft manuscript is kept under the tightest security that is supervised by Lang’s assistant (Kim Cattrall).  You don’t know why it is kept under such tight supervision, but it makes you think something is suspicious, but you don’t know what.  As Lang starts to become involved in some controversy and more attention is brought to the entire situation, the ghost begins to get curious and tries to dig deeper into the Prime Minister’s past.  In his digging, he really doesn’t discover anything, but he begins to feel threatened by people who do not like his investigations and inquiries (even though he doesn’t really find anything).  In fact, the only thing that keeps him suspicious and wanting to know more is the fact that there are so many people wanting him to stop.  The suspense and intrigue continue to lead nowhere until the final 15 minutes of the film when they reveal enough of the secret that afterward, with some thought and analysis, you can go back through the film and piece together what was happening.

In watching the film, you can tell it was made by a master filmmaker like Roman Polanski.  From the first shot to the brilliant final shot of the film, it displays the incredible talent of the director.  The acting is not terrible either.  McGregor and Brosnan give strong performances, which cannot always be counted on with those two.  There are also strong supporting performances by Olivia Williams, Timothy Hutton, and Tom Wilkinson, who is always good.  Outside of Kim Cattrall’s atrocious British accent, there is nothing to complain about concerning the cast.

My main issue with this film is the way the story is constructed.  It is impossible to follow for most of the movie simply because they give you nothing to follow.  There is a conspiracy out there.  How do you know?  The ghost is investigating a conspiracy.  Does it ever tell you there is a conspiracy?  Is there anything to warrant the investigation?  Not really.  The storyline of the film is kept as secretive as the book the ghost is writing.  I enjoy suspense thrillers as much as anybody, but the only reason this film is suspenseful and thrilling is it tells you it is supposed to be.  Then in the end when everything is revealed, it doesn’t reveal enough for everything to make sense at face value.  It reveals something very small that, after some thought, has great ramifications, but if you were not paying attention all throughout the movie, it would be impossible to piece it all back together.  When I finally pieced the story together, it was a very complex and fascinating story.  It simply took too much work to discover what happened.  I like it when a film leaves some aspects of the story to the imagination, but this film leaves the entire story to the imagination.  It is one of the only films I have ever seen that really requires a second viewing to understand what happened in the end.  It had the potential to be great, but came up short simply by how the story was told, or not told in this case.

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