The Ghost Writer

Directed By: Roman Polanski

Written By: Robert Harris and Roman Polanski

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson, and Kim Cattrall.

Director of Photography: Pawel Edelman, Editor: Herve de Luze, Production Designer: Albrecht Konrad, Original Music: Alexandre Desplat

Rated: PG-13 for language, brief nudity/sexuality, some violence and a drug reference.

    Within seconds of the beginning of The Ghost Writer, the pounding drums and strings of Alexandre Desplat’s score begin turning and twisting, oozing into the melancholy and ominous shots of the rain soaked boat we are seen. What makes this score so curious, and ultimately essential to the film’s exquisite nature, is that it as both insightful curious, but ultimately pulpy and campy.

    Which is what Roman Polanski’s latest film should truly be qualified as—a pulpy and classically made thriller. Without whistles and gimmicks to throw at the audience, Mr. Polanski, still one of the greatest directors working today, uses old school tricks with minimalist techniques to absorb us deep into the mystery of the film. It makes an apt comparison to Shutter Island to show why one succeeds and one doesn’t—In Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese takes an extremely complex narrative and then twists and confuses use with pulsating light and sound. Mr. Polanski takes a film with such a simplistic, although slightly absurd narrative, and uses as little as possible to bring you in—its minimalist filmmaking at its best. He is ever so slightly turning you—no real car chases, no explosions, and only one gun shot make up this crafty and highly entertaining thriller.

    The film stars Ewan McGregor as a character only known as “the Ghost.” He’s a writer who makes his living on editing memoirs and autobiographies for famous people. His last work, in a nod to the film’s camp origins, was for a magician and was titled “I Came. I Sawed. I Conquered.” The Ghost is hired by a famous publishing company to take over a job at a high price for a former Prime Minister, Adam Lang, played with devilish wit by Pierce Brosnan. The Ghost heads off to an island just off the coast of the American North East (Mr. Polanski, not being allowed in the United States, shot the film in mostly Germany). But there’s a catch the whole business—the original ghost writer either drowned on accident or committed suicide for unknown reasons.

    As the Ghost takes over, a chaotic news event begins to take over the process, as charges of war crimes are brought up against Lang, and even the British government refuses to help him (parallels to former minister Tony Blair are made, but The Ghost Writer is clever enough to not harp on them). Even more, the Ghost begins to discover more and more about Lang’s secret, and possibly fabricated past, leading down a twisty road.

    What makes The Ghost Writer is devilish in its concept is that Mr. Polanski uses his camera in subtle ways to create the tension. The home of Lang is full of big pane glass windows, which seem to always have gray and brooding clouds laying over. His shot structures are less about turning and twisting the camera, and much more about leaving dead space—the space that represents all the unopened questions and ideas that are being covered. The film is full of mystery, but it’s in the cold harshness that surrounds the characters. The clouds outside aren’t just a warning of foreboding—they make the home, despite its strange auspiciousness into a paradise of sorts, where the dangers of the past are removed and secluded.

    In many ways, The Ghost Writer has its origins in noir, and like most of Mr. Polanski’s greatest films, it’s more of a story of evil and the human capacity for it. In Chinatown, John Huston delivered what might be the most frightening line ever spoken on screen: “most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place, they're capable of…anything.” That same theme seems to lie over The Ghost Writer, which has its narrative begins to unravel in its third act toward its fascinating, if illogical conclusion, is that the worst evil is the kind that appears as good, as vulnerable, and innocent. Those are the evils that can be spun and turned, and make a seemingly good thing turn into a world of deceit and lies.

    Mr. Polanski knows evil—he’s lived through the Holocaust, had his wife murdered, and his recent arrest is another fact that the world is always out for self gain instead of letting the past go. In The Ghost Writer, which the director edited from his home while under house arrest, Mr. Polanski shows that evil is all around and in every empty space—once you open the right drawer, the answers hit you right in the face.