Film Review with Robert Mann – The Ghost

16th April 2010

The Ghost ****

In the past year controversial film director Roman Polanski has been in the news quite a bit, not for anything relating to his film career but rather his arrest last year in Switzerland on an outstanding charge for a sex offence committed in 1977 from which he fled prosecution. With such controversy surrounding him it is certainly easy to forget that Polanski is in fact a highly accomplished Academy Award winning writer and director. His latest film, The Ghost (known as The Ghost Writer in the states), based on the novel of the same name by former BBC TV news reporter and political columnist Robert Harris, was actually in the post production stage when he was arrested but the process was never put on hold, him continuing to oversee every step of the film and handle all artistic decisions and even finishing editing while he was in a Swiss prison. While Polanski’s arrest is certainly justified, it is good that he at least got the opportunity to finish this film.

A ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) is hired to take over writing the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), after the previous writer dies in an accident. Soon after The Ghost accepts the assignment, a high-ranking British official accuses Lang of having illegally seized suspected terrorists and handing them over to the CIA for torture. The controversy over this alleged war crime brings reporters and protesters swarming to the Martha’s Vineyard mansion where Lang is staying with his wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and his media-handler turned mistress Amelia (Kim Cattrall). As The Ghost continues his work, he begins to uncover what seem to be clues placed by the previous writer. Did the dead man piece together a dark secret linking Lang to the CIA? And did he somehow hide this information in the manuscript he left behind…

The Ghost is a film that is rather anti-Hollywood in its style. Such is the strength of Roman Polanski’s direction that the film never has to resort to elaborate setpieces or needless action to create tension. Instead, it manages to be a tense and taut thriller just by utilizing simple, almost Hitchcockian (the film even starts without any opening credits like Hitchcock tried out, something was quite revolutionary at the time), filmmaking techniques, with the musical score being used to great effect in amping up the sense of threat and simple cinematography giving the film a distinctive look with doing anything fancy or extravagant. Really, only a director such as Polanski could make a film as restrained as this and one that completely avoids the excesses of Hollywood movie making. The fact that the film manages to be pretty interesting both visually and otherwise is a testimony to Polanski’s filmmaking skills as its use of rather nondescript locations (the film is mostly set in American but, due to the arrest warrant on Polanski there, was actually filmed in Germany) and largely confined setting (much of the film takes place in one rather limited location) could easily have resulted in a film that failed to hold the interest. Sadly, despite the technical proficiency of Polanski’s work, the film is occasionally a bit too slow paced to fully maintain the attention, particularly with the rather long running time. Nonetheless, this narrative driven film does have a very satisfying conclusion, it just takes a bit of time getting there. The screenplay (written by Polanski, adapted by book author Robert Harris) is well structured and features plenty of sharp, occasionally even humourous (in an everyday conversation kind of way) dialogue, as well as characters that are realistic and thoroughly developed, each having their own personal demons to contend with and reflecting the complicated nature of interpersonal relationships. These characters are well realised on the screen thanks to strong, believable performances from every member of a cast that also includes Tom Wilkinson and Eli Wallach among others. The most intense performances, though come from Pierce Brosnan (whose screen time is actually rather limited, his character not being present for much of the story) and Olivia Williams who convincingly and excellently portray the strains of being individuals under siege from everyone around them. Ewan McGregor is good also but his performance is not in the same league as that of either Brosnan or Williams. All in all, while The Ghost is far from being a cinematic masterpiece, it is still a well made thriller, albeit one that is perhaps lacking in actual thrills. Nonetheless, it provides an interesting insight into both the dark side of politics and the truth about so-called ‘autobiographies’. It won’t be to everyone’s taste of course but anyone who likes a bit of political intrigue will find that this is a film definitely worth checking out.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

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