The Ghost Writer

The mounting suspense and twisty plot turns may recall Hitchcock, but the richly paranoid mood, the ambiguous moral compass and especially the climax of this politically driven 2010 thriller are pure Polanski. The 76-year filmmaker has made a polished yarn that brings to mind his career pinnacle, Chinatown, but the pulpish nature of the material here never allows this film to come near the classic level set by Roman Polanski's 1974 masterwork. Still, it remains crackling good entertainment on its own terms. Based on Robert Harris' 2007 novel, The Ghost, the story (adapted by Harris and Polanski) wraps around Adam Lang, a renowned world leader who is fighting extradition for past war crimes. Similarities to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair are purely intentional since Pierce Brosnan's sharply rendered portrayal evokes such comparisons. The handsome, charismatic Lang was forced to resign when he supported a war as a favor to the U.S. President even if it irreparably damaged his reputation at home. Along with his tightly wound wife Ruth and suspiciously efficient assistant Amelia Bly, Lang is staying in a private compound on Martha's Vineyard in order to finish his memoirs.Enter a professional ghostwriter hired to finish Lang's memoirs, an assignment nearly completed when the first ghostwriter is suddenly found washed ashore on the island. The circumstances for his death are unclear, and the new writer is given just one month to spruce up what his predecessor had written. Just as the writer settles into his new role, Lang is ordered by the International Criminal Court to stand trial for handing over four suspected terrorists to the CIA for torture such as water-boarding. The gears are set in motion with the book's deadline pushed up due to the breaking news and the writer discovering information secretly left behind by his dead predecessor. The plot thickens considerably with Ruth playing a pivotal role as she unravels from the crisis and the surprise appearance of a Harvard professor named Paul Emmet whose past association with Lang may implicate the political leader in a burgeoning conspiracy that proves life-threatening to the writer. By the time the puzzle pieces come together, Polanski provides a crescendo that melds the brooding intensity of a mystery with a canny sense of political intrigue.In the title role, Ewan McGregor brings fervent energy to a nameless everyman character whose entire existence appears to rest on the secrets within the manuscript. With subtle force, Brosnan exposes the vainglorious underbelly of the Blair doppelganger, while Olivia Williams sears the screen with fierce intensity as Ruth, a cross between Hillary Clinton, Lady MacBeth and Mrs. Robinson of The Graduate. Polanski is not afraid to cast familiar faces in key roles like Kim Cattrall as Amelia. Initially, it's hard to shake the image of Samantha (Sex and the City: The Movie) when she strides onscreen, but the actress sharpens the buttoned-up Amelia with a real edge. Showing up in effective cameos are Tom Wilkinson as Emmet, Timothy Hutton as Lang's attorney, a nearly unrecognizable Jim Belushi as the publishing magnate who hires the ghostwriter, and 94-year-old Eli Wallach as a beachcomber. Alexandre Desplat (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) delivers an appropriately sweeping score, while Pawel Edelman's (The Pianist) cinematography produces the right foreboding atmosphere necessary to maintain a tight vise around the mystery.