GHOST WRITER

GHOST WRITER

Roman Polanski is one of my favorite directors, regardless of his personal strife and presumed criminal background. To say he never allowed the savage murder of his wife Sharon Tate, his own arrest and conviction for statutory rape, his subsequent escape and fugitive status, nor his recent capture and placement under house arrest... deter him from creating great films - is an understatement. There are hundreds of active directors out there who can't get it partially right under ideal circumstances.

His first film of note was "Rosemary's Baby" after which Sharon was killed. Then "Chinatown" after which he was nailed for the rape. The then spun out "Tess" the year after being on the lam, followed by "Frantic" and later "The Piano" which won him his first and only best director Oscar. Now, after spending most of the last year under house arrest, he releases "The Ghost Writer" with Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor as the principle characters.

But he also cast veteran actor Eli Wallach, Jim Belushi, Timothy Hutton. Tom Wilkins, Kim Cattrall and Olivia Williams - some in the smallest of roles. The best actors still seek him out when he does a casting call...even as a fugitive and social misfit. This comes with greatness.

Now that I've explained my admiration for Polanski's skill now I must explain that "Ghost Writer" is a film that must be looked at at different levels- not because Polanski's current dilemma but because of the the timing of it's release, the story and the similarity between it and Marty Scorsese's latest piece "Shutter Island".

"The Ghost Writer" and "Shutter Island" are both eerily staged on remote islands. In both cases, bad weather is an integral part of the story. And in both cases, the main character turns out to have a hidden past while nobody is really what they are originally seem. But in Scorsese's film, I received less than what I hoped; not true for Polanski's

Robert Harris penned both the novel and the screenplay for "The Ghost Writer" and his previous job as a confidant for former Prime Minister Tony Blair was the background for the story. Brosnan plays Adam Lang, a former British Prime Minister who left his office in shame. He is now staying on a secluded island so that he can complete his memoirs in relative peace. The film opens with a car ferry unloading its cargo of cars save for one driverless BMW. In a following scene Lang's assistant washes ashore dead from drowning; the assistant who was helping him with his memoirs.

Now Lang needs another assistant which his publisher quickly obliges him... Ewan McGregor in an unnamed role. He is simply the ghost. (Note that is the actual name of Harris' novel The Ghost)

After a spirited interview with the publisher (played dutifully by Jim Belushi) he cautiously accepts the job along with the gargantuan stipend accompanying it. His job is to try to make sense of the mishmash of scribblings Lang as written; rewriting random thoughts into a cohesive book and he has only one month to do it. This may not seem like a big deal, but ghost writing isn't even background, he writes other more fluffy stuff.

Immediately after accepting the position, he is mugged for a minor manuscript he was given to look over in his spare time. But was he mugged because the robber thought it was the Lang manuscript or was he being set up as the perfect victim in a Hitchcockian manner.

The ghost arrives by ferry to the secluded island and, after a very brief stay at a local hotel, moves in with Lang and his cold, aloof wife Ruth (played by Olivia Williams) and Langs secretary/mistress Amelia Bly (played sumptuously by Kim Cattrall). As you can guess this is not the best atmosphere to be entering when you need to buckle down while on deadline.

This really isn't a great situation when Ruth decides that since she hasn't had any nooky from her husband... the writer will do!

He is further distracted after he begins working on the manuscript and begins uncovering some of Lang's past dealings with the American government; a relationship that is far too cozy and the reason he was booted from office. Furthermore a former cabinet member has accused Mr Lang of war crimes.

But who this mysterious professor Paul Emmet (Tom Wilkerson) with whom Lang had a previous relationship with? Things continue to unravel as suspicion builds and the paparazzi start flying over. Did Lang's first assistant get killed? This is what we are to figure out in a fairly taut drama. It does however, spend far too much time developing remote characters that bog down the pacing - again like Scorsese's "Shutter Island".

Williams' role as his frigid wife lacked the depth that Tilda Swinton gave us in 2007s "Michael Clayton", Williams is trying too hard. Brosnan gives a decent effort as a Tony Blair look-alike while Cattrall has moments of sexy-bossy.

As with "Shutter Island" it seems Polanski was influenced by Hitchcock, this time "Jamaica Inn" and a tad bit of "The Man Who Knew too Much". Polanski, however, in keeping with his habit of directing under duress - manages to deliver a better overall package than Scorsese. Nevertheless, "The Ghost Writer" doesn't approach his best works ("Chinatown" was by far his masterpiece) "The Ghost Writer" is a good statement even if it turns out to be Polanksi's last! --GEOFFREY BURTON

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