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 In cinemas Thursday Aug 12[MA15+]
Director: Roman Polanski
Runtime: 128mins.
Roman Polanski celebrates his freedom from the threat of extradition to the US with a new film, which he continued to work on while under house arrest in Switzerland. When the ghost writer for an ex-British Prime Minister’s memoirs dies mysteriously on a ferry, a new writer is recruited to get the manuscript into a state that’s publishable. This new writer (in the film known only as The Ghost, and played by Ewan McGregor) comes from the commercial end of the publishing world, and his last book about a magician was called I Came I Sawed I Conquered.
The security around the manuscript, and the apparent desperate efforts by some to get hold of it, seem excessive to The Ghost when he reads its bland, innocuous content. He genuinely tries to help the ex-PM Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) with his autobiography, to make it more readable, but begins to discover details about Lang’s past and about his ghost-writing predecessor that give him cause for concern. Meanwhile Lang, who was so friendly to allies across the Atlantic during his time in office, is now living on an island off the US coast with his wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and staff including personal assistant Amelia (Kim Cattrall). When news breaks that Lang is to be charged by the International Criminal Court for authorising the torture of terror suspects, media and protesters descend on his island hideaway. The Ghost cannot resist following up his own leads, or the charms of Lang’s wife Ruth.
The references to Tony Blair are fairly blatant, and timely as Blair is about to release his autobiography in real life. There’s also an American professor (Tom Wilkinson) who’s involved with an organisation with a name that sounds a bit like Dick Cheney’s company Haliburton. But the satirical reflection on real events and political figures is only a starting point for this journey into the murky depths of political intrigue and deception.
Polanski is right on form here, directing a sharp script co-written with the source novel’s author Robert Harris with precision. One particular sequence where The Ghost is followed is wonderfully reminiscent of a suspense film from the golden age of 1970s cinema, done without any of the quick cutting, close shots or loud music that such scenes normally have today. Once you get over the shock of Kim Cattrall from Sex & The City speaking with an English accent, this is a thoroughly enjoyable political thriller right to its bitter conclusion.
****
GARRY WILLIAMS
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