mjcfoxx

So, the history is there, in a sort of hazy blotch of spurtches (those are real words, look them up), but of course it's told to us by one person, Tony Wilson, who everyone in the film repeatedly says is a c*nt, and potentially the worst kind, a charming c*nt that appears to know everything, is married multiple times to women he constantly cheats on, and appears to fail at everything except failure (he's apparently married to a former Miss UK as of the film's making). His specialty is talking out of his ass and spotting the next big thing in music. So, we're treated to the Sex Pistols, we're treated to Joy Division and New Order, the Happy Mondays, bands the kids don't know they know unless they know they need to. It's told tongue-and-cheek, and you know it must embrace the spirit of it because there are multiple cameos by the people who were a part of it. It also comes with a light of mockumentary about it, as though it needs to make fun of itself to keep you off about whether this or that happened that way or if it happened at all (and sometimes they will straight up tell you it didn't). A little too self-aware to be a masterpiece, but it's revetting and loads of fun to watch, all the same.

This is one of those variety of stories Hitchcock would've worked with. Ewan McGregor's "ghost" (I didn't pick up his name, did you?) is picked for one reason and one reason only: he's quick and he's self-indulgent enough not to meaninglessly put himself in harm's way. Pierce Brosnan's Adam Lang is a former British Prime Minister writing his memoirs and the previous ghostwriter just mysteriously kicked the bucket. Yes, there's a secret that the ghost's predecessor was beginning, or perhaps was in the middle of..., or perhaps had already unraveled. When a crisis puts him square in the middle of his client's life, he starts breaking his own rules, and his predecessor's work reaches out to him. He's too proud to rubber stamp what's given to him, and while everyone's distracted, he sets out to write a sincere, honest appraisal of his client. And of course, he's in way over his head... a fun movie, and clever, but ultimately too easy to pick through, too vague in its terror, and too eager to plow through a reveal everyone will see coming.