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Is Polanski’s ‘The Ghost Writer’ His Greatest Crime? At Least This Decade…

More of a B-movie thriller seemingly made for TV than a late era gem by an ersatz cinematic titan, Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” is a deeply flawed and ill-conceived blunder maligned by poor performances coupled with a generic and tepid script. Buzz from Berlin where it premiered has been much the same, and the film is definitely a fairly big misstep.

On some levels it’s a near embarrassment and there are multiple ridiculous moments that produce unintentional laughter. Some will argue Polanski — always in possession of a devilish sense of humor — is purposefully going for some moments of wry comedy and they’re probably right, but it simply never works in favor of the film and just feels silly or even lameduck in the worst manner.

Compromised because the filmmaker was in prison during its post-production, this still doesn’t excuse the disengaged performances and endlessly unnecessary sequences and shots that should have been ditched at the storyboard stage (one laborious and nearly never-ending sequence practically gives a GPS system its own cameo).

That said, the editors do this clumsy, telegraphed and obvious thriller absolutely no favors with scenes extended to the point where one thinks about stopping, turning to their audience neighbor and asking, “Why the hell are we still here?” These lingering scenes that mark the entire film rob the picture of any tautness and thrills, providing what is mostly a clockwatching experience in full-blown banality.

If you thought Ewan McGregor could not pick a worse project if it fell on top of him you would be sadly mistaken. That said the Scottish lead is probably the best part of the picture (which isn’t saying a lot). He stars as “The Ghost” (no really, he’s essentially nameless throuhout), a hack professional ghost writer who pens or fixes self-fellating autobiographies and makes them passable for mass consumption. His wormy and unctuous agent — who steals every scene with him in his hilariously bad, yet amusing performance — somehow manages to score him an audience with the publishers for the in-progress autobiography of Adam Lang (Pierce Bronsan, who apparently has lost his British accent and painfully tries to reconstitute it), a former British PM with a spotty track record and a penchant for being a U.S. lapdog (in short, a not so thinly-veiled version of Tony Blair).

McGregor’s writer is seemingly ill-equipped for the job as he is a political ignoramus. But his impassioned argument is that his political callowness is exactly what will allow him to properly lionize the PM as an icon and human, and it convinces the American publishers — represented by a comically boorish Jim Belushi — who have already spent a fortune, that he is the man for the gig.

Oh, but there is a hitch. Lang’s former aide and ghost writer, has just died in a mysterious alcohol related drowning, or suicide attempt, no one seems to be quite sure. No sooner has the Ghost accepted the high paying job, he’s attacked outside of the publisher’s offices and the manuscript he’s been given — another book that has nothing to do with Lang’s — is stolen from him. Something obviously augurs poorly here, but the Ghost has to quickly catch a plane and fly to the U.S to meet his subject, so there’s no time to dwell on this bad omen.

Once in America, he comes to the PM’s luxurious and highly security-guarded compound on the East Coast and quickly meets the staff led by the loyal and officious Kim Cattral who inexplicably trys to pull off a British accent (McGregor does a commendable job of putting on a straight-face the entire time she speaks). Also present in the modern and spacious island retreat is Lang’s icy and perennially dissatisfied wife played by Olivia Williams (“Rushmore”) who struggles to rise above the mediocre harridan material she’s given.

After a few false starts on the hagiography, McGregor and Brosnan try and put on some interview sessions which will become the basis for the book and at one point Lang tells the writer — in these otherwise inert and dull scenes — that he had zero interest in politics, but fell into it because of a girl, now his wife.

In the middle of these sessions, as if right on cue for end of act 1 difficulties, the politician becomes engulfed in a political scandal when a former British Secretary accuses Lang of colluding with the CIA and handing over terrorist suspects in what turned out to be a larger torture scandal (shades of Abu Ghraib). Appealing to the International Criminal Courts (ICC), Lang all of a sudden finds himself to be a potential war criminal and the Ghost writer’s suddenly becomes entangled in this media field day. Naturally, the book abruptly becomes a hot property and further complications arise when his publishers want its already rushed deadline turned around abnormally fast and as a defense of these scandalous allegations.

To make a drawn-out tedious story shorter, the longer McGregor’s character explores his subject via the biography, the deeper he finds himself embroiled in the political intrigue, which leads to deeper and larger conspiracies that have global implications between the relationship of the U.S. and the U.K. Tonally it feels off, none of it is very believable or worse, very interesting.

These various collusions also become sexual when the writer is forced to live at the holed-away compound for safety’s sake and becomes involved with the PM’s wife. As much as these sexual tension scenes can be seen coming from a mile away, the actual act of coitus is a groaning, “are you kidding” Michael Crichton-worthy plot twist (in fact much of its dated tone feels not dissimilar to Tom Cruise’s ’90s thriller, “The Firm.”)

From there, “The Ghost Writer” gets more daffy with its genuinely suspenseful tone constantly undercut by silly and unbelievable twists and turns.

While many have seemingly praised Alexandre Desplat’s score it, like the movie, feels rushed, thrown together and full of cheap feigning and red herring maneuvers. And early on in fact, it feels artlessly slapped on top of scenes. There are even a few scenes where it feels like Desplat was blindfolded or was writing to no picture (which is entirely conceivable given Polanski’s arrest during post-production).

Polanski does know movie craft, and the concluding sequence does evince some rather artful camera moves and mise-en-scene — despite a highly laughable ending — but most of the picture has everything laid out, underlined and highlighted for the audience to follow along.

For all its attempts at being tense and affecting, Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer,” is generally commonplace, largely uninvolving and ultimately forgettable. The director might have been in the news in recent months for 30-year-old crimes, but it’s safe to say, “The Ghost Writer” is his most glaring felony in recent years. Buyer beware. [C-]

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16 COMMENTS

  1. And yet The Ghost is getting better reviews than Shutter Island. (currently 86% to 68% on Rotten Tomatoes)

    The Ghost actually received largely good to great reviews at Berlin. Yet another reviewer conflating one's own opinion with "the buzz" to try and lend their opinion more weight.

  2. Don't go see Shutter Island instead.

    The Ghost Writer is so much better. This review is in the minority for a reason.

    "The Ghost actually received largely good to great reviews at Berlin. Yet another reviewer conflating one's own opinion with "the buzz" to try and lend their opinion more weight."

    You hit the nail on the head. This is clearly a contrarian push-back against the buzz. "Oh it's not as great as others say it is therefore it sucks. "

  3. Blargh. Yes, the RT scores are better, for sure. but the first reports out of Berlin were very mediocre. I stand by that. just scour the web for the first few reports by Variety, etc.

    also, or just pretend that line is gone in the review. Will that make you feel better?

    But you know what? Who gives a shit, we're going to write what we're going to write regardless of what anyone else says.

    Also, if you know me personally you know I personally love Polanski's films, but this one, not so much.

    But yes i'm trying to CONFLATE MY OPINION, PLEEEEEEEEEAASSSSSEEEEE!!!

  4. It's hard to compare your reviews of Shutter Island and The Ghost Writer since its 2 different people writing. And as we've seen in the past, views about a movie can vary widely within The Playlist. Why not add a report card at the end of the review that shows how the other critics on your site grade a movie? Would make it easier for readers to compare and make your reviews more consistent.

  5. Do you have PTSD over the words "report card"? If you love watching movies and have an opinion, why be reticent about giving a one letter +/- grade. And for the record, Junior, I already have a cook and housekeeper but I'll keep you in mind.

  6. Good Lord, this review is so wildly off base.

    Not to mention completely false as to the other reviews, which are largely excellent, including today's New York Times, Los Angeles, Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.

  7. I agree with KitCon. It's actually a great idea. Because there are so many reviewers on your site, it'd be interesting to see where each of them stands on a given movie. It'd give me a chance to pick which ones to align myself with.

    What's so wrong about that, Playlist? Nobody else does it, but it's a good idea. You could be the first!

  8. Hey guys, we're flattered you want to get a vibe on what all the writers feel about a given movie, but sadly, we're scattered all over the place and not all of us see a film at the same time. If we waited for everyone on staff to see any movie we'd be publishing our winter reviews next fall. A weighted score just isn't realistic.

    The reviews that go up reflect the writer's opinion plain and simple. Sometimes the rest of us agree, sometimes we don't.

    If we don't agree, we'll sometimes run a counterpoint piece like we did for "Shutter Island" (which, for the record, I liked almost as much as Drew) or sound off in the comments section (which we also do from time to time).

    Keep reading, you'll get a sense of which writer's taste is in line with yours and whose isn't.

  9. A reasonable, level-headed, non-incendiary response from a member of The Playlist? Well, I never.

    Thank you, Kevin.

    So this means that you (those of you who've seen it) all agree, where The Ghost Writer is concerned?

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