THE GHOST WRITER (2010) will haunt you for days

Posted by Stephen Jannise

In my review for Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, I mentioned Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and its strong influence on the Von Trier film. Now it’s time to refer to another Polanski masterpiece, Chinatown, with regard to another new classic, this time Polanski’s own latest effort The Ghost Writer. Chinatown is one of my ten favorite films of all time, a film that is the awe-inspiring result of many great filmmakers working at the absolute top of their game. Starting with Robert Towne’s grand but taut screenplay, often mentioned alongside Casablanca as one of the greatest scripts ever written, fine actors such as Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and the eloquent John Huston give memorable performances with Jerry Goldsmith’s expert period score providing the perfect mood. But the only element shared by both Chinatown and The Ghost Writer is Roman Polanski, and that’s the element that counts.

Polanski finds himself in similar territory with this latest film, once again telling a thrilling tale about Great People and the power that they wield. Ewan McGregor plays an unnamed writer, seemingly a New York Times bestselling hack, who is hired to help ex-British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) finish his memoirs. As Lang becomes embroiled in a controversy involving an accusation that he extradited terrorists to America so they could be tortured, McGregor’s ghost writer gets embroiled in Lang’s mysterious past. Along the way, he tries to figure out the truth behind the death of the previous ghost writer, a political speech writer beloved by Lang, and gets a little too intimate with Lang’s lonely wife.

Lang and the Ghost have some creative differences.

This story, based on a popular novel, hits all the right notes. Particularly delightful is the fact that the film is laced from intrigue from the very first moments, which feature the ghost writer being hired onto the job. Polanski is a master at conveying subtle dread in the most banal of circumstances, and in his hands, McGregor sitting in the office of a publishing house agreeing to rewrite a memoir somehow takes on a beginning-of-the-end tone. The biting strings of Alexandre Desplat’s wonderful score certainly provide clues of their own.

The setting of the film also contributes to its atmosphere of impending doom. The ghost flies out to Martha’s Vineyard to join Lang at a seaside residence. According to Daniel, who has spent a significant portion of his life in and around these environs, Polanski and team, despite being confined to Europe for reasons you well know, accurately represent the locations, which serve the story perfectly. The crashing waves, which brought the body of the ghost’s predecessor to shore, and cloudy skies offer no solace to a man who quickly discovers he is in over his head.

Olivia Williams and Tom Wilkinson, not a bad supporting cast.

Although the film can certainly claim to be the very best political thriller in years, perhaps decades, it is precisely this political angle that may prevent it from claiming the same ageless quality that Chinatown continues to enjoy. Whereas the new film follows some of the same tired news stories we just finished reading about (Lang is clearly meant to represent Tony Blair), Chinatown, with its period noir trappings and its land-grab plotline, suggest not only something that has happened in the past but something that will continue to happen as long as humans walk the earth. John Huston’s schemes to control as much of Los Angeles as he can, by any means necessary, coupled with the vile, incestuous desires he feels toward his daughter and, ultimately, toward the daughter of his daughter elevate his villany to almost mythic, ancient god-like proportions. The villains in The Ghost Writer are not much different than those in similar movies and everyday life; Huston was one in a million.

John Huston giving good villain.

Nevertheless, The Ghost Writer is a welcome early-season gem. Along with Scorsese’s Shutter Island, we have been lucky enough to enjoy two different but equally impressive thrillers from established masters, proving that filmmaking is not only a young man’s game. As he did with his actors in Chinatown, Roman Polanski coaxed career-best performances out of McGregor and Brosnan and turned run-of-the-mill material into a film that can stand confidently alongside Scorsese’s more stylized thrill ride. In fact, the final shots of Polanski’s film pack a greater punch than Scorsese’s conclusion, so see it before someone spoils all the fun.