The Ghost Writer
Director: Roman Polanski
With: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Kim Cattrall, Tom Wilkinson, etc.
Very good Polanski film, with winks at his influences and even his own older films. Yeah, he is a troubled guy (would you have been able to cope with his life?) and guilty of an unsavory crime, but his skills are mostly intact here.
A former Tony-Blair-like British prime minister (Brosnan) hires a ghost writer (McGregor) to complete his memoirs. The previous writer had died under mysterious circumstances, and the PM’s household is an armed camp of neurotics and paranoids.
The writer, unnamed, must work under these difficult conditions, and he begins to suspect that something is afoot. His suspicions impel him to look into matters that may have killed his predecessor. The more he finds the more he knows that it was murder, and begins to understand why. This is not good for his health, especially when a certain spy agency appears to be involved.
One quibble. There are a couple of plot holes that are annoying. I won’t reveal them, but my colleague D.K. Holm spotted one immediately and mentioned it to me after the movie. I may have picked up on this as I mulled the thing over, but Doug saw it right away. Very sharp.
Having said that, it really did not affect my enjoyment of the film. I would see it again. I especially enjoyed the work of all the major actors, and Polanski's skewed view of humanity.
B+