"The Ghost Writer" is a Weak Polanski Film

[Carl M. Zapffe]

"THE GHOST WRITER"('10)...B- ... This eagerly awaited film from famed director Roman Polanski turns out to be quite a disappointment, and that is a shame because films by Polanski are so few and far between. At least it can be that said that this highly politicized movie is stylish and well acted in its thinly veiled portrayal of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and suspicions that he was a lapdog for US interests after the tragic events of 09/11. 

The talented cast of actors including Ewan McGregor, Kim Cattrall, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, and Tom Wilkinson all adroitly play their roles to cool but confusing perfection. Would that this were enough in a convoluted story about a replacement ghost writer for a former British Prime Minister who has been hired after his predecessor has drowned under suspicious circumstances. The plot thickens when the Prime Minister is charged with war crimes by the Hague Court for having surrendered prisoners of war to the CIA who then had them water boarded. 

The problem with this movie can be summed up by the famous aphorism from Gertrude Stein, which went that "There is no there, there." The whole foundation of the story for this movie, adapted from the novel by Robert Harris, rests on a rather insubstantial premise that left me shaking my head at the pointlessness of it all. A British Prime Minister cooperating with the CIA. Gee! What a surprise! If I remember correctly, almost a half a dozen different countries, maybe more, have surrendered prisoners of war, enemy combatants, terrorists, whatever you wish to call them, to US custody. How many James Bond movies have we seen where the British M-5 cooperates with the CIA? 

The movie sends a jarring political note by being a thinly veiled diatribe against the strong working relationship that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had with US President George W. Bush. I would imagine that few or no fans of Roman Polanski would be so uneducated or naive as to believe that the US and Britain did not share intelligence information. In addition, this movie posits that this Prime Minister is personally complicit for the tragic death of a British soldier, which is something that I find to be quite a stretch. Polanski even goes so far as to cast a Condoleeza Rice look alike for the cameo role of a Washington political figure speaking to the cameras about the Hague charges.

On top of everything else, there are so many plot holes and McGuffins in this movie as to stagger the imagination. Just to give away two of the worst, the former dead ghost writer's personal effects are for some unknown reason left untouched in his guest room and the new ghost writer is forced by extenuating circumstances to move into that room, whereby he will have every opportunity to discover the (not very) damaging information about the PM. Then the new ghostwriter will find that the driving instructions that the dead man left on the GPS system for the guest BMW have not been erased, and, moreover, he can't erase them. The car inexorably leads him to uncover a previously unknown CIA link. Talk about cinematic paint by numbers... Remember now that this is a property where security is everything.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, excuse me, I mean Adam Lang, is holed up at his fortress-like estate out on Martha's Vineyard, an offshore island which is accessible only by car ferry or private plane. The new ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) reluctantly assumes the task of completing his autobiography after being promised a fat paycheck. Passing through a security detail and property gates which would make any insecure potentate proud, he meets the Prime Minister and those closely associated with him, including his frosty wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams) and his officious Executive Assistant, Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall). 

This is a gloomy, atmospheric movie with few or no breaks in the tension. Polanski obviously hasn't learned from Hitchcock that you have to have moments of levity sandwiched into the plot to add humanity. The characters are mostly one dimensional and unsympathetic, although Eli Wallach does have a welcome cameo role. Finally, the Chamber of Commerce for Martha's Vineyard ought to sue Polanski for making the island look so ugly and unappealing. (B-, rent it, I suppose, for idle curiosity on a slow night. It will surely soon be on free television.)

Carl M. Zapffe,

The Cat's Meow Movie Critic

http://www.catsmeowmoviecritic.com