Film review: The Ghost

The Ghost (2010, dir. Roman Polanski)

Not to be confused with the Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore supernatural love-fest, or South Korean horror film from 2004 or Ghost Dad – the film where Bill Cosby dies with hilarious consequences; this  The Ghost is Roman Polanski’s most recent film.  It dropped through my doorstep some weeks ago and I’ve only just found myself getting round to watching it.  Based on the novel by Robert Harris, he and Polanski adapted it for the big screen.

The story follows Ewan McGregor as the eponymous Ghost Writer who is recruited to complete the manuscript for the autobiography of former British Prime Minister Tony Bla… I mean Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) following the death of the previous ghost writer.  He’s flown to America to an isolated island where Lang and his wife (Olivia Williams) are holed up – escaping from the glare of the media due to less than friendly public opinion of Lang who is suspected of being complicit in the illegal seizure and torture of terrorist suspects.  The book needs to be finished in 4 works at the behest of Maddox – CEO of the publishers of Lang’s memoir – played by a very bald James Belushi.

As The Ghost (he isn’t named in the film) attempts to get down to business of prying information from the stern Lang he becomes more and more drawn into the intrigue surrounding Lang life’s, the high-level of security, the death of his former ghost writer and charges brought by The Hague against his subject.  What starts off at fairly slow pace soon escalates into a thriller that to me felt like The Da Vinci Code only with and IQ of three figures.  Having one the great film directors helming the film helps somewhat. The film is just over two-hours long and fairly races along once McGregor gradually begins to unravel the mystery behind his predecessor’s death and piece together an exciting puzzle.  Certainly it goes to show you don’t need endless shootouts or Vatican assassins to make a good thriller these days.  One key action scene involves Ewan McGregor cycling through the country in the rain.

Polanski has a great cast at his disposal which always helps, there’s some excellent with some great British talent and an Eli Wallach cameo – who doesn’t enjoy one of them?  Ewan McGregor is excellent portraying a certain level of naivety and ambivalence toward the job he has taken on mainly looking to bank the 250k, but he and his rather odd English accent becomes fully engaged in his ad hoc investigation.

Tom Wilkinson puts in a fairly neat little cameo as an old university friend of Lang and Kim Cattrall turns up as Lang’s Personal Assistant proving she can act instead of judge flounce around in expensive clothes waving her aging fanny at every man she meets in Sex and the City.  Pierce Brosnan is intriguing as the former PM; vainglorious, aloff, self-important and out to save his own neck – yet like Blair seemingly 100% committed to doing what he sees is right.  The comparisons between Lang and Blair aren’t exactly subtle.  Whilst the characters are fictional Lang is a cypher for Blair slotting in nicely to take his place – the references to Iraq and the war on terror make it fairly obvious.

Top of the class for me though is the wonderful Olivia Williams; who I’ve really enjoyed watching in An Education and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll in the last couple of years.  As the wife of Adam Lang she seems most at ease at being away from her home, whilst she seems somewhat reticent she has fire in her belly and is a lot more steadfast than her husband and isn’t afraid to point the finger at the fact he’s probably boffing his PA, though she does find a little time to do some boffing of her own.

All in all it’s a really entertaining film.  I haven’t read the novel but like any good book it keeps you involved with the twists and turns of the narrative encountered in unison with The Ghost, you’re never ahead or behind him.

4 out of 5