El escritor

I have been waiting to see this movie since I saw the trailer and not just because it starred Pierce Bronsnan. This film looked and sounded very interesting and I have to say that it was. It might be slow for some people who are use to modern movies where things move at a fast pace (mostly to go nowhere). It keeps your interest and has a nice twist at the end. The acting was superb, even the minor roles, such as Timothy Hutton (who I miss on the big screen) did a great job with a really small role. Sure it wasn't a great thriller but it has a lot of good elements that make it suspenseful. Also this movie has a lot of humor and doesn't take itself so seriously which is great too. It's a really good balance and I would see it again.

From Knife in the Water and Rosemary's Baby to Chinatown, Roman Polanski has shown a skill at the slowly distributed thriller, and especially with a dash of hard-core politics as in Chinatown's Los Angeles water intrigues. Now in The Ghost Writer, the acclaimed director recaptures that Hitchcock sense of inevitable evil slowly stalking the rich and famous while the little guy protagonist witnesses the underbelly of power.

Ex-Prime Minister Andrew Lang (Pierce Brosnan) hires a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) to finish an autobiography by the previous ghost writer, who mysteriously drowned. As unnamed ghost begins his work in a Martha's Vineyard hideaway of Lang, mayhem breaks out, for Lang is accused of sanctioning water boarding in the Iraq theater.

While it is apparent Lang's personal life is deteriorating as well, the ghost pursues with the tenacity of Jake Gittes the mystery of how his predecessor died, gaining a few bruised bones but not a broken nose for being nosy.

While the film has some clichéd situations, almost as if Polanski is trying to evoke '70's thrillers in all their cheesiness, he has recruited an excellent cast. In addition to McGregor and Brosnan at their best, Tom Wilkinson as a suspicious Ivy League academic and a cameo by Eli Wallach as an old Vineyard denizen are so good that I wanted more of them. Polanski has always directed his actors well, but of course he is smart enough to hire them in the first place.

The stark; outdoor settings; the almost antiseptic interiors; the slowly suspenseful music; the car chases; the shower; and the suspicious ladies,especially the blond), are a few of the Hitchcock touches gracing the Ghost Writer. That Lang is unable to reside in only few countries of the world where he can't be extradited for crimes against humanity is a light reference to Polanski's own exile. For that allusion, I applaud him and wonder how he can keep a sense of humor amidst his possible imprisonment on charges of statutory rape.

However, he is after all a certifiable auteur whose legacy will outlive any prison time.

Ewan McGregor gets rid of every ounce of glamour and allows his Polanskian character to emerge. I though, a few years ago, Polanski could have played him himself the way he played so beautifully in "The Tenant" Those two characters are not that far apart. Taking over an apartment or a job from someone who leaves the scene under very mysterious circumstances is practically the same thing. McGregor, however, is superb. In "The Ghost Writer" events play close to the knuckle. Who is Pierce Brosnan? Tony Blair? and Olivia Williams? Classic film-making at its best. Compelling and visually stunning. The score by Alexander Desplat reminded me of Bernard Herrman and the atmosphere is so thick that the film's 2 hours plus fly by at an amazing speed. Polanski at 77 doesn't show any signs of jadedness. He is in total control. Hurrah for that!

The Ghost Writer (2010)

A very conventional political thriller, well done, smartly paced, but a bit drab or slow at times, too.

And familiar.

So you go into this kind of movie looking for what distinguishes it, like the understated performance by Ewan McGregor. And the really gorgeous setting, which looks so much like either Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket you'd swear it was. But in fact the utterly incredible house was built for the movie on a sandy island in northern Germany called Sylt. Most of the movie, in fact, was shot in Germany, including Berlin (which was meant to be London), for the simple reason that the director, admitted sex offender Roman Polanski, couldn't travel to the U.S. without being arrested. There are a few driving scenes and scenic inserts that were filmed on Cape Cod (in the U.S.) without Polanski's presence.

It's interesting that Polanski wanted to make a film that had to be set here even though it made things difficult. Doubly so because his protagonists are all British, making weakly disguised references to Tony Blair (Pierce Brosnan doing a routine job--he really can't act worth beans if an actual emotion is required) and his wife (Olivia Williams, who is absolutely terrific, award material).

Which brings us back to McGregor, playing a ghost writer for the ex-prime minister's memoirs. He's really terrific at playing someone with savvy but also naiveté. He's smart but at first so trusting he gets into what is obviously a dubious job, his predecessor having just been killed. But we are lulled, too, until events internationally unravel the situation and he discovers some inside information. Of course, this puts him in more danger, and us in more suspense.

It's good, very good, but we have been here before. The details are different, but the intrigue is the same. Yes, we know about this shadow government where people are manipulated and assassinated while the news coverage is rose and contrived. Yes, we have seen the detemined innocent set out to prove the truth. Even the direct facts, that this young writer is going to rewrite his predecessor's apparently finished memoir, and then begins with the most basic interviews of the subject, don't shape up.

You'd never know this was directed by Polanski. Or would you? If you look at his earliest films you'll find some edgy, almost cruel quality ("Repulsion") but if you see "Chinatown" you'll actually have a parallel to this one--a well made film in a conventional container (that one has an amazing Jack Nicholson to lift it up). There is of course "Rosemary's Baby," which was lifted by a really creepy story. For "The Ghost Writer," Polanski's last film, you keep thinking there will be a real twist, something large and bizarre or just chilling, but it doesn't really happen. In fact, when the memoir gets published it's all a bit anti-climactic.

And so, the final ten minutes, at a party, feels like a desperate attempt of the writer, and director, to make all this effort more than just another polished intrigue. At the last minute, a highly improbable final discovery occurs, followed by an even more improbable and shocking last ten seconds. Surprised, we sort of say, okay, I get it, and that's that. Not exactly the reaction you'd want to have after a decent two hours preparing.

I say no more except that the final seconds are also an homage to Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing." You'll see. Nice touch.

This is a connoisseur's movie. It needs to be consumed slowly and deliberately to truly enjoy everything that has gone into it. Watch it carefully, there is a lot going on under the surface.

Yes, it's a thriller, and as such parts of it are fast paced, but what it does so well is to misdirect your attention for a while before snapping you back to focus.

There are no wasted words, nor gratuitous scenes in this movie. Just like a Hitchcock movie, the scenes are all necessary, even if they are symbolic.

The acting is first rate, and I say that because much of the tension in the movie comes from the way the characters act, not special effects, not plot points hammered in over and over again.

It is a very dark movie, and the darkness is nicely set off by humor and sarcasm in a few spots.