The Ghost Writer [Blu-ray]

This One Is Really Good
"The Ghost Writer" is a Roman Polanski political thriller of the first order. It is very cleverly plotted with gripping suspense and narrative drive that pulls you into the story. Some movies of late have seemed endless; in this one I was completely unaware of time passing and was completely enthralled by this story of the deepest intrigue. It's full of conspiracies, and the whole thing is done in a very classy, sophisticated manner that will remind you of Hitchcock at his very best. It's engrossing and involving.
The acting is top-notch with Ewan McGregor very effective as the ghost writer who has been brought in to liven up the memoirs of a former prime minister (played extremely well by Pierce Brosnan). He is a Tony Blair figure who has been fingered for war crimes by one of his former cabinet ministers. He has ordered the arrest and rendering out of Britain of suspects so that they could be tortured for information.
The movie begins in gloomy, leaden weather on the...

The Best Suspense Film of 2010
Watching this film for the second time I was struck by how great of a director Roman Polanski is. This is a director, who at the age of 76 can still direct a high-minded suspense thriller that doesn't rely on violence or even plot to drive the suspense; a a throwback to classic suspense films, driven by atmosphere and directorial skill.

Ewan McGregor plays the unnamed ghost writer hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) after Lang's previous ghostwriter dies under mysterious circumstances. Soon after the Ghost arrives at Lang's beach house, where he's staying with his wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and assistant Amelia (Kim Cattrall), controversy erupts over Lang's alleged involvement in handing terrorist suspects over to the CIA to be tortured.

Many recognizable faces appear in The Ghost Writer including James Belushi, Timothy Hutton, and Tom Wilkinson, in a terrific bit role. 95-year-old Eli Wallach also...

Art and the Artist
This movie is bound to raise some ire and all for the wrong reasons. The controversy surrounding Polanski will dominate the argument. I feel that is incredibly unfair to every one else who has worked on this movie. So I am going to separate the art from the artist.

In what has to be one of the best casting decisions, Pierce Brosnan plays Adam Lang the former Prime Minister of UK. Embroiled in a controversy regarding the rendition program, he has sought refuge in America. Ewan McGregor (he is never given a name) is hired as a ghost writer after the original one dies in a mysterious accident.

Your average thriller would start out with the base setup and build on the tension leading upto the finale. But in Ghost Writer the tension is always palpable. Even in the most mundane of scenes you are never allowed to settle. The remarkable background score by Alexandre Desplat and the camera work of Pawel Edelman which paints predominantly in varying shades of bleakness...

Click to Editorial Reviews