The Ghost Writer (2010)
Director - Roman Polanski
Starring - Ewan McGregor & Pierce Brosnan
3 stars
The Ghost Writer was an interesting one for me. I didn’t go into it with the highest hopes. At the beginning I was very much enjoying it, then it got to a stage where proceedings were dragging out and I got a little bored with it, then things wrapped up nicely until the final scene made me feel angry and cheated. Fair to say it was quite a rollercoaster of emotions, which makes it that much harder to critique.
Based on the novel by Robert Harris, the story revolves around a man (The Ghost, played by Ewan McGregor) who has the job of writing the memoirs for a controversial former Prime Minister of Britain (Pierce Brosnan). The Ghost has his concerns at first but takes on the job, only to discover some dark secrets of the past. When he learns that the man originally hired to do his job may have in fact been murdered, he begins to fear for his own life and wonder what on earth he has got himself into.
As a whole, the story is done quite well. It’s a pretty exciting and gripping plot and has no reason not to be successful. Ewan McGregor is brilliant. He plays his role with the witty charisma that we have come to love from the Scot. The beauty of the way the narrative plays out is that the audience is learning different parts of the investigation (so to speak) as The Ghost learns them. So in effect, we are riding in the passengers seat the whole way through and with McGregor behind the wheel it is always going be a super trip.
As I mentioned, I was really captivated early on. The film set itself up beautifully for what I expected to be a top-notch mystery and I was so keen to see how everything was going to pan out. Although I was satisfied with how it eventually did, it unfortunately took its time doing so. There was a stage late in the second act when so much new information was being thrown forward but with little explanation of why. Although most of this knowledge was justified in the ending, at the time it became quite a tedious watch. New characters and clues were being introduced but no one was to know why. I can’t fault (director) Roman Polanski for selecting to put in this information because it was no doubt critical for the endings justification, but the way it was done felt slow and insignificant.
The end did justify the means and that was one of the films strong points. The final scene (without giving anything away) did not. Anyone who has seen it will know what I’m talking about and I thought it was a horrid curtain call. Audiences always like to know why something is happening on screen and two weeks after my viewing I still can’t answer this question. Maybe that says more about me than the film, I don’t know?
Regardless of this, The Ghost Writer is still an enjoyable and satisfyingly challenging movie. Not challenging in the way that makes it difficult to follow, but it does require an active and thinking audience. Brosnan is solid in his role as Prime Minister although it is lead man McGregor who carries the show. Definitely worth a look, especially if you love a good mystery.
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