Ghost Writer; the health care debate had more suspense

While Roman Polanski prepares to incorporate orange jumpsuits into his wardrobe, his latest, and perhaps last, movie Ghost Writer is now out in theaters. Several weeks ago, TMMC brought you a sneak preview of the movie and I noted with excitement my anticipation for the political thriller. Unfortunately, thrilling is not a word I would use to describe this movie now after seeing it. Thrill-less is more like it.

In Ghost Writer, Ewan McGregor plays a writer who finds himself ghost writing the memoirs of a controversial former British Prime Minister (obviously a Tony Blaire metaphor), played by Pierce Brosnan.  Caught in the PM's inner circle as a web of scandal untangles, McGregor finds himself way over his head and uncovers a secret with the potential to drop the political bomb of the century.  Sounds great, doesn't it?  I'm running out the door to see it right now!  Too bad a 50 word summation is more exciting than the real deal.

Ghost Writer holds so much potential and you'd think it would be well protected in Polanski's capable hands. Unfortunately, it packs more bark than bite.  It draws you in very quickly with its suspense and intrigue and a very Hitchcock-ian brooding and mysterious feel.    The audience is guided down winding paths of plot that lead to one dead end after another, opening up new cans of worms which you would expect of any good political thriller.  But with so little action, there's little pay off.  And as more and more layers of the onion are peeled away the pace of the movie slows down to a snails crawl, to the point of "get on with it!"

Yet still, you hold out for hope that at some point something big is going to happen that will turn the world upside down.  Something big does happen, but it's not the pay off you expect or even desire.  In the end, it all seems so simple and you're left feeling unsatisfied, if not downright angry that you've invested so much time and energy into staying awake the entire time.  The ending could be considered clever, but by the time it rolls around you're so disenchanted with the movie you don't much care.

With some great art direction Polanski gets credit for setting a great tone and mood and credit must also be given to the sophisticated writing, for the most part.  But alas, when the crux of the movie boils down to America peeing on the carpet like a dog again, you just feel like you've been there, seen that.  Bad America...bad girl!  Now I'm going to rub your nose in it again, that's the only way you're going to learn.  We got it already - America bad, everyone else good.  Let's move on, can't we?

McGregor, Brosnan and Olivia Williams (playing Brosnan's wife) deliver strong performances that only make you feel further cheated.  I trusted you Ewan McGregor!  I followed you blindly, was your companion in adventure, and you let me down!  If Polanski was trying to channel the great Hitchcock, it comes to no surprise that he included a famous Hitchcock blond (if you're unfamiliar with Hitchcock's obsession with including blonds in his movies, you should read up on it, it's fascinating).  What is surprising is that they decided to cast Kim Cattrall in the role.  And even more surprisingly, she didn't entirely blow it!  Don't get me wrong, she delivers the weakest performance  but I was just impressed that she didn't ruin the movie entirely.  The most you'll hate of her is that she can't keep a British accent for two lines in a row, so you vaguely feel like you're watching Sex and the City's Samantha Jones disastrously trying to pull off some kinky role play.  The nice thing about lowering the bar so much for her is that she actually exceeded my expectations.  Good for you Kim Cattrall!

Confusingly, there's one aspect of the movie that drove me nuts more than anything else.  What can only be considered a sloppy attempt to lower the movie's MPAA rating, all the F-bombs have been dubbed over and replaced with less harsh language.  And it's not like it's smoothly handled with the magic of editing - it's absolutely blatant.  The character's face is 20 feet tall on the screen and looking directly at the camera saying "f*#!," but all you hear is "bloody bastards."  Excuse me?  Did you really think we wouldn't notice that?  It's not even the same number of syllables!  And it happens not once, but at least three times on my count!  What are we doing here people, watching the movie on TBS?

Despite receiving critical acclaim, I'm not quite sure how Ghost Writer will fare with audiences.  When I read things like "Polanski's best movie since the 70's," it makes me wonder if he was that good of a director to begin with.  Certainly for all its similarities, a Hitchcock triumph it was not.  If you're a fan of the genre, check it out, but lower your expectations...lower....lower....lower....there you go.  I may not be the best writer in the world, but the Ghost Writer is so transparent it deserves a BREW & VIEW IT!

Check out the trailer, makes it look real good, doesn't it.