Sinister Inanity | The Ghost Writer (Single-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

A brilliant thriller. | The Ghost Writer (Single-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) | Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan

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	• The Ghost Writer (Single-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan Summit Entertainment, 2010 average customer review:based on 61 reviews view larger image
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A thriller with many more puzzles than car chases

It was so much fun to watch a true mystery thriller movie, rather than endless high tech, car chases and violence.

With Director Roman Polanski, it took me back to his 1974 classic "Chinatown" where he not only directed, but had a cameo part roughing up private eye Jack Nicholson.

Here we move up to near current events, with a Tony Blair type person trying to set the record straight re the Iraq war, rendition, torture, etc. Come to think of it, these concerns are still with us. But the Blair person in the movie hopes for a new biography to clear his name.

A ghost writer comes in to try and polish the work of a previous ghost writer who ran into severe difficulties. He gets a month to polish the draft, then a new deadline of two weeks
This would be a very tough job for any writer, but add some romance and almost daily challenges and turns.

Pierce Brosnan plays the Blair role, and I told my wife I thought he did a great job.
She remained focused on Polanski's legal problems, which is a good point. But can't we just look at his recent work with this movie and let the legal system work its wonders?

I think you will enjoy this movie, especially if you are a mystery fan. We just do not get many movie mysteries like this. I hope Hollywood and the Independents come out with many more.

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Sinister Inanity

It is perhaps because of the fervency with which I was looking forward to this movie that I am now declare disappointment with Ghost Writer.

Who would blame me? There are quite a few recommending features: good actors, an interesting mystery and a good director who raises the viewer's interest level right out of the gate: an empty car on a ferry and a body washes up on grey, storming beach!

Who? Why? How? These questions are raised but tantalizingly go unanswered as we watch Ewan McGregor's reluctance for taking up a new job, which only heightens the effect: what's going on with ex-British PM Brosnan and why did the ghost writer before McGregor (whose character--McGregor's--interestingly, is never actually named) die under mysterious circumstances and will history be repeated?

The wind-swept island setting in which The Ghost (as McGregor is called) ends up is gorgeously somber, enhancing the general foreboding atmosphere as the tale weaves in and out, throwing various clues that leads the viewer seemingly everywhere but at the truth, punctuated by events that effectively shake up the picture. Unfortunately, the truth is where this movie falters.

Unlike my wife and much to my dismay, I'm never good at predicting the end of movies, but this one's was particularly easy from about two-thirds of the way in and it's pathetic. Unfortunately, it seems in his zeal to paint UK-US relationships with the master-slave brush, Polanski stumbles over what could have been a truly intense story and grabs this pale reflection instead.

Three stars for the gorgeous scenery, the wonderful beach house and the great acting (with the exception of the unfortunate Kim Cattrall).

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A brilliant thriller.

I have been hearing good things about this movie since it was released, so I decided to rent it.
And.............

The good?
Simply stunning performances from Brosnan and Mcgregor.
Great story, taught direction.
Excellent score.
The movie keeps you guessing right to the end.

The bad?
Nothing really, I still don't care for Polanski but the movie itself is one of the best thrillers I've seen in a long time.
Recommended.

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Taut, Intriguing

This movie has the same feel as the high-tension "Torn Curtain," the classic Hitchcock thriller starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews. Like that earlier film, this one plummets a civilian into international intrigue where he is left to shift for himself. He has to use all his ingenuity and wiles to evade the conspiracy that he feels taking shape around him. He senses danger at every turn, but since he isn't sure what door it's coming in through, he can't be sure which door to leave by.

There are major stars in this film who play their parts brilliantly. Tom Wilkinson is chilling in his portrayal of civilized menace. Pierce Brosnan does a wonderful job as the ex-Prime Minister whose hearty manner increasingly seems to be a mask he wears to hide ruthlessness.

The only problem is - the stakes in this game are hardly high enough to warrant all the characters' sinister maneuvering. In "Torn Curtain," Newman and Andrews were up against the concerted forces of the deadly Cold War competition. Secrets about new atomic weapons were at stake. Here the forces being arrayed against Ewan McGregor's character are motivated by a desire to either make or break the ex-Prime Minister's reputation. One faction is working to make a cause celebre of his orders to have four suspected terrorists water-boarded in order to force them to reveal their connections. The opposing faction is working to cover-up this ugly aspect of his regime in order to protect his place in history and his Party's chances in the next round of elections.

Ordering the torture of detainees is certainly reprehensible, but it's hardly the stuff of international intrigue. As McGregor makes his way through this contrived danger and tries to ghost write an autobiography for the ex-Prime Minister that is neither a fluff piece nor unintentionally incriminating - he does begin to find that the over-shadowing conspiracy has a root system larger than the single issue of the treatment of detainees. But this larger issue turns out to supply an even less convincing reason for murderous plotting. This international game of poker with nothing convincing at stake then devolves into a completely trumped up exercise.

Without Nazis or KGB, or without directly invoking terrorist infiltration - modern political thrillers have a hard time conjuring up realistic threats. So this movie is a snow globe, a shining example of acting, dialogue, and cinematography, all encasing a harmless miniature of motive. But if you can just imagine those bygone blocs and inject some sense of the threat they posed into this plot, you can enjoy the craft of this film.

Plus, it has an authentically inventive, poignant ending.

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When a gifted ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) is hired to write the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), he quickly finds himself trapped in a web of political and sexual intrigue. Lang is implicated in a scandal over his administration's harsh tactics, and as the ghostwriter digs into the politician's past, he discovers secrets that threaten to jeopardize international relations forever. Co-starring Olivia Williams and Kim Cattrall, it is a taut and shocking thriller from acclaimed director Roman Polanski (The Pianist).

DVD Features;
An Interview with Roman Polanski,
The Ghost Writer: Fiction or Reality?,
The Cast of The Ghost Writer

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