Dissenters have claimed that The Ghost Writer lacks the action and focus that a political thriller requires to be successful. However, it is the obligatory action sequences and predictable plot lines that have bogged down the genre over the past thirty years. The Ghost Writer may not be the most action packed film ever to grace the screen, but like it or not, Polanski has the touch that makes genre fare classy and respectful. Say what you want about the man, he can shape a thriller.

Ewan McGregor plays a character that is known only as The Ghost. The Ghost is completing an unfinished memoir written for a former British prime minister named Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). As The Ghost familiarizes himself with the manuscript, he comes across secrets that cast suspicion on Lang’s association with the CIA. Before the implications of his discovery can even sink in, Lang is accused of war crimes during his tenure. The controversy temporarily derails the memoir sessions and The Ghost begins investigating the circumstances that led to his getting the job in the first place.

Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan both put in excellent performances. The two have a terrific rapport and both are breaking a slow streak in their careers, Brosnan particularly stretching his capacity. Olivia Williams rounds out the core of the cast as Ruth, Lang’s frustrated wife. Williams’ detached gaze at times makes her seem a victim of her husband’s career, and at other times, alludes to the notion that she may know more than she is letting on. She has had some memorable roles since Wes Anderson’s Rushmore (1998) brought her to the attention of the world, but Polanski has exploited her complexities as an actress to the fullest in this story. Williams has the goods and is destined to surpass her already superlative career.

Besides the obvious nods to Hitchcock thrillers, The Ghost Writer evokes the style, pacing and tone of classic seventies crime dramas. Echoes of films such as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974), Don Siegel’s Charley Varrick (1974) and Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975) are evoked in The Ghost Writer. Loud explosions and excessive cursing will never take the place of craft and Polanski has proved that the ghost of suspense will occasionally rise up and haunt the screen.

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By Celyn • March 15, 2010 • Reviews, The Ghost Writer • Comments: 0

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