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The Ghost Writer (2010)

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From Time Out New York

We’re so used to amped-up white-knucklers that the controlled approach of a filmmaker like Roman Polanski is immediately seductive. The director responsible for such mainstays as Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby (and of course his own real-life news cycle) turns Robert Harris’s political potboiler involving a ghostwriter (McGregor), a former British prime minister (Brosnan) and an isolated island home into a slow-burn near-masterpiece. Shot in claustrophobic widescreen, the film showcases Polanski’s mastery of even expository scenes: A revealing conversation between McGregor’s so-called ghost and a shady figure played by Tom Wilkinson is so fraught with tension that you expect those malevolent Cocteau-esque hands from Repulsion to burst out of the wall and drag someone into oblivion.
The film stays more grounded than that, though it certainly doesn’t lack for perverse Polanski flourishes. There’s a great bit of carnal business with the prime minister’s wife (Williams) that’s filmed in a deadpan long shot. Eli Wallach pops up—frail-looking though spirited—as an old-timer who stokes the writer’s paranoia about his employer’s plans for him. And more than one character has a wry aside on the protagonist’s heritage (“Oh, you Brits!”), as if it was both a badge of honor and a reason for condescending suspicion.
There are all number of similarly colorful touches (the sick-joke ending alone is worth the price of admission) that help to deepen what one colleague suggested is the greatest airport novel ever filmed. It’s true that The Ghost Writer doesn’t possess the lingering profundity of the director’s best work—the War on Terror window dressing is just that. Yet Polanski has made a genre piece with a verve and vitality that’s in sadly short supply.

Author: Keith Uhlich

Time Out New York Issue: 751: February 18 - 24, 2010

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User reviews of this film

Robert Thornton said...

Posted on Nov 19 2010 08:37 What a relief to get a credible thriller with no silly car chases, martial arts fighting and improbable physical feats just to fill in time to a very shallow script. This film was superbly paced and acted with a haunting tension that built up to the finale. I couldn’t understand why Mcgregor had to have that strange accent as it did jar somewhat. As mentioned the confrontation scene with Tom Wilkinson was brilliant. When Mcgregor was driving the BMW I kept thinking why don’t you follow the sat nav, as this was his predecessor’s last ride, and he did. Superb slow burner.

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thecritic said...

Posted on Apr 04 2010 21:41 5 out of 5! Clearly New York cinemas dont get any good films compared to their london counterparts. Theres a big difference between homage, and lazy cliched film making, and thats what this is full of. Eli Wallach was striaght out of a bad scooby doo episode, maybe Ewan Macgregor was so dozy cos hed been on the scooby snacks too. Half the film seemed to be an advert for BMWs, with a car chase conducted entirely by close ups of speedometers and GPS systems, and no actual cars! Is this really the man who brought us the pianist? I dont think so.

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L.O.Brian said...

Posted on Mar 07 2010 03:16 It is not true that The Ghost Writer does not possess the lingering profundity of Polanski's best work. Just like a painting it depends if you connect to it or not.
One of Polanski's best. Loved Eli Wallach and little Rosy. All the actors were skillful, and so was the direction and music score. Go see the movie and enjoy a thriller, lots of fun and humor. It has already won best director award in Berlin.
May Contain Spoilers to “The Ghost Writer”
Some may believe Polanski’s latest movie "The Ghost Writer" is a nightmare, bearing no resemblance to reality, or to his current situation, but this isn’t true since certain aspects mirror Roman Polanski’s own demise in America in 1978, which was not all of his own doing.
In the movie there are two ghost writers, who never meet, because the first one dies, before the other arrives. Both are linked by the same manuscript, the same people, the same location, the same corruption, the same cover-up, and the same set of circumstances which seeks to silence and kill them for exposing corruption.
In the movie the first ghost writer perishes under strange circumstances much as Roman Polanski did In America by flight by the end of January 1978 due to Judicial Misconduct against him.
Just like the movie, and in reality a second victim exists, who experiences what Polanski experiences - that is Judicial corruption in the same Santa Monica Courthouse.
For the second victim the official corruption came in the form of Judicial misconduct and police brutality against her, with undocumented white County of Los Angeles Sheriffs positioned in the Courtroom & specifically there to assault and batter her, for exposing Santa Monica College Police cover up of her sexual assault complaint against a photography teacher at Santa Monica College, which sexual assault occurred in his darkroom class, by trapping her and surprising her from behind.
By exposing the police corruption which the Santa Monica Court was given notice of through the claim that was filed days in advance, she was subjected to a staged hearing and attacked in the courtroom by a number of undocumented White County of Los Angeles Sheriffs' Deputies and one defendant African American Santa Monica College Police Officer in front of the County of Los Angeles judge .
This same County of Los Angeles Judge has since been promoted to the California Court of Appeals by the former California Governor on police brutality day, just as Jay S. Bybee’s who signed the Torture Memos for the Bush Administration was promoted by the former President to become a judge on the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in 2003.
In the movie “The Ghost Writer” a Harvard Professor is linked to the CIA., which is the same as Jay S. Bybee's affiliation to the CIA through signing the Torture Memos, Bybee has also written for Harvard an article entitled, “ The Tenth Amendment Among the Shadows: On Reading the Constitution in Plato’s Cave, 23 HARV. J.L. & PUB. POL’Y 551 (2000)
As Polanski and another person has been victimized in the shadows of the same Cave, the Santa Monica Courthouse, who have never met, but yet whose paths are inextricably crossed through the Judicial Misconduct and corruption that they were exposed to there, Polanski’s claim for Judicial Misconduct is strengthened even further, since the Santa Monica Court’s exploitation of these two different sexual assault cases, illustrates how the County of Los Angeles Santa Monica Court has engaged in a double standard which depends on who the perpetrator is – i.e. foreign born Roman Polanski or California Santa Monica College state employee who is being assisted by corrupt police, and the Court itself.
In reality the second victim of the Santa Monica Courthouse sued but instead of any quick resolution, and apart from two rays of light of two precedent decisions, she has been slowly tortured by the endless litigation for nearly 12 years, in addition to being sexually assaulted, framed by the police and beaten up, and not to forget falsely arrested.
On January 11th 2006 Judge Jay S. Bybee of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, who had signed the Torture Memos for the Bush administration years earlier, wrote a decision which has been used by the lower Federal Court to terminate the second victim’s civil rights case which does include the Santa Monica Judge's Judicial misconduct against her,, the staged hearing, and the police brutality in his courtroom in retaliation for reporting police corruption.
Polanski’s movie "The Ghost Writer" warns writers and viewers to not look for the truth, or expose facts that Officials do not want you to expose, because if you dare expose those political facts, or if you dare to report that you were sexually molested from behind by a Santa Monica College photography professor in his class, or if you dare to report Police corruption or Santa Monica Judicial Misconduct you may end up a ghost of yourself, and dead upon arrival.

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