Movie Review: The Ghost Writer (2010)

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Related Reviews:
Frantic
Knife in the Water
Roman Polanski: Wanted & Desired

AKA The Ghost Writer

Since Ewan McGregor's character is as anonymous as his eponymous profession implies, it's fittingly appropriate that the nameless man who introduces himself as “The Ghost” would find himself working on his latest assignment at an isolated seaside home he dubs, “Shangri-la in reverse.”

And although it's the duty of any ghost writer worth his laptop to be discreet and forsake all credit in making the individual he's writing memoirs seem even more extraordinary on paper, in the case of the ghost in filmmaker Roman Polanski's sophisticated new film, McGregor is not merely the second fiddle but rather the second fiddle of a second fiddle in his assignment writing the life of former prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan).

The fifth and last interviewee who openly tells Lang's agent (Timothy Hutton) that he-- like everyone else-- doesn't read political memoirs, McGregor's ability to turn things around quickly as evidenced on his curriculum vitae lands him two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a month's work as a replacement ghost after the first scribe wound up mysteriously dead on the shoreline.

Mugged on the way home by hoodlums who only swipe another manuscript handed to him for a read-through by Lang's agent, McGregor is in for several more shocks when he realizes just how dangerous politics can be. And soon he learns he's only allowed to read the dull autobiography in the privacy of the Lang estate as it's kept under lock key and security code by the woman openly having an affair with the married politician, played by an understated Kim Cattrall.

Yet the simple tweak job turns into a massive overhaul when Brosnan's Tony Blair-like character (and the subject of the book) is threatened by the Hague of being convicted of war crimes in knowingly sending suspects away on “torture flights” following the 9/11 attacks. Hastily, McGregor becomes embroiled in the mess after he lends his professional assistance in writing a statement of denial that makes him an accomplice, should the accusations prove true.

Although McGregor is able to just turn off his moral judgment like a light-switch to work on the book, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the evidence and further inconsistencies in Lang's statements and the facts. And his suspicions are both confirmed and aroused after he uncovers documents and a GPS vehicle route left by the original deceased ghost. Additionally, he's lured into a web of seduction, which blossoms in the midst of scandal-induced isolation when he falls into bed with Lang’s wife (Olivia Williams).

Frequently dubbed in the advertising as Polanski's first thriller in over two decades, the film which has just earned the exiled Oscar winning filmmaker the director prize at Berlin is likewise one of the strongest English language mysteries for adults to hit the multiplex in a long time.

Moreover, it proves once again just how in-tune Polanski is with this particular genre, culling techniques and employing-- whether consciously or not-- the same type of imagery, comeuppances, love triangles, mistrust of authority, and startling conclusions that have been the hallmarks of his career from Knife on Water through Chinatown and Frantic.

Again water serves as major visual piece to the psychological puzzle, which has been woven throughout his oeuvre since the beginning. And when you blend the image and connotations of water along with themes of deception, sins of the past, and questions surrounding just who we’re letting into our little worlds, Ghost Writer begins echoing Frantic, Chinatown, Death and the Maiden and others from Polanski’s unique twist on the genre.

To this end, it’s certainly tempting to study the overlaps in his work, whether it's in his acknowledged fondness for Hitchcock and Chandler (which led to the film) or the definite autobiographical elements including a sense of Shangri-la in reverse, the transient nature of luck, persecution, accusation, and death that are blended together to masterful effect in Ghost.

While admittedly it does struggle a bit in the pacing of the work, which you can attribute to the fact that it’s hard to get a handle on the characters, luckily our hero is engaging because of what McGregor naturally brings to the role personality-wise as opposed playing the ghost in the aloof manner one would assume from the profession and original title of The Ghost.

Furthermore the film more than makes up for its shortcomings of a padded second act via some wicked surprises, which is most evident in another one of Polanski’s instantly classic endings that you could line up side-by-side with at least three of his others in terms of similarity and cinematic effectiveness.

One of the best twist-filled mysteries for grown ups since Transsiberian and the foreign film Tell No One, The Ghost Writer is also quite timely as an overt George W. Bush/Tony Blair allegory, based on author Robert Harris’ 2008 “Thriller of the Year” best-selling novel, keeping political minds stimulated almost as much as film buffs’ as the type of purely Polanski film that begs to be seen twice.

Text ©2010, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

DVD Review: Incendiary (2008)

Michelle Williams & Ewan McGreggor
Reunite in Sharon Maguire's Explosive
Incendiary on 5/5/09

Also Available On Demand From Amazon

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As we hear in endless prescription commercials-- most medications come with a stern warning to patients not to operate heavy machinery while under the influence of whatever the pill contains. And much like the supremely devastating work of Danish Dogme director Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, and Manderlay)-- Bridget Jones's Diary helmer Sharon Maguire traded in the tacky reindeer sweater of Colin Firth for her unflinchingly bleak follow-up film Incendiary which, similar to von Trier's films should be doled out to viewers along with a temporary supply of anti-depressants at least until the post-traumatic stress wears off.

Although the phenomenal turn by Brokeback Mountain Oscar nominee Michelle Williams anchors this controversial tragedy that-- like David Gordon Green's recent Snow Angels-- proves that women's weepie cinema didn't die in the 1950s as initially assumed-- even an impassioned portrayal can't aid the film during its severe gaps in logic, human decency, taste, and thinly disguised manipulation as a female punishment picture.

Although helmed by a woman, Incendiary invites us to judge right from the start as we meet Williams as a strong-willed Cockney accented cliched East Ender who takes her beloved four year old son to the beach for a day while running around in jeans that read "Sexy Mama." Soon her voice-over begins labeling her sad-sack soccer obsessed (or "football" rather), Top Gear, and TV dinner husband "right miserable," while she bemoans her hum-drum life as a third generation resident in what appears to be government housing.

Moreover, and in an incredibly unflattering light, we see Williams portraying someone whom Maguire and the original novel's author want us to assume is so typical that she hasn't even been given the decency of being bestowed with an actual name and the only one that seems to stick out from the start is the lewd one she applies to herself as a "slapper."



To this end, it isn't long before the "young mother" who is prone to wearing miniskirts and staring off into space in boredom decides to act. Thus, tired of coping with her psychologically drained police officer husband who returns from work on the bomb squad with the same unfunny line, "Well, I'm still here, aren't I?" whenever Williams inquires about his day, she begins looking for an outside thrill.

Dressing even trashier than usual and planting her baby monitor directly in the hands of a next door neighbor, she hits the local pub and makes a good show of blowing off the slightly sleazy journalist (Ewan McGregor) who comes onto her instantly before soon enough he's at her table, the floodgates open, and she begins telling him every detail about her unhappy life.

Williams manages to evoke sympathy for her stereotypical character in that we sense just how lonely she is without someone with whom to speak and-- despite the fact that she embarks on an affair, because of her undeniable humanity and authenticity, we're with her every step. However, it's a tentative trust we have in her that is dismissed just as soon as it is introduced by Maguire, working from the divisive and infamous novel by Chris Cleave-- when it moves Williams' and McGregor's early coupling into excruciatingly tawdry terrain.

For, in the middle of a very graphic extramarital shag right on the sofa she watches television on with her husband, the two are caught in the act by the most brutal form of comeuppance ever as a bomb rips through the soccer stadium where her husband and child are at that very minute.

Running towards the scene of horrific terrorism which left over a thousand residents killed-- still in shock-- we suspend our disbelief long enough with our jaws still on the floor as McGregor and Williams journey to the site knowing in our gut even before she does that the men in her immediate family are dead because as the film implies, "the slapper" deserved it.

While Cleave's novel had the intense misfortune of being released on the very day that London's public transit system was attacked back on July 7, 2005, Maguire's film-- already building in that bad sense of karma-- was struck by more horrific timing when its premiere at Sundance coincided with the death of Williams' ex and father of her child, Heath Ledger in 2008.

Now over one year later, Incendiary makes its way to DVD and Blu-ray via ThinkFilm and Image Entertainment. And while certainly it's bolstered by the performances of its two lead stars who also worked well together in the equally misguided yet infinitely more watchable, predictable clunker Deception with Hugh Jackman, Incendiary is a film that it's nonetheless hard to view objectively. This is especially true given not just the subject matter and sense that the wounds are still not healed in regards to horrific attacks but also on another level when you realize what Williams has gone through as well.

Still, trying to push all this aside and simply focus on the narrative with gaping plot holes and juggling a few too many red herrings and false starts in this jam-packed work that has several storylines all fighting to be the main one-- we're left with an absolutely compelling and heart-rending performance by Williams in a film that moves from a five stages of grief melodrama to paranoid thriller as Williams and McGregor ascertain that a cover-up may have been involved. As if this isn't enough, it also tries at least for little while as well to become a portrait of loss on both sides of the situation when she becomes friends with the unaware and surviving family members of a man who was more than likely one of the suicide bombers.

Flirting with the possibility of moving into Pelican Brief territory as her husband's former boss (creepily played by Matthew Macfadyen) makes a play for Williams and lets a few details about that fateful day at the stadium slip in an unforgiving and disturbing love triangle-- the film's decision to make McGregor a journalist at first showed potential that a mystery would be resolved but ultimately it's all inconsequential.

And unfortunately Maguire's adaptation and direction for the work soon makes a large case that it's an allegorical female punishment movie a la The Life Before Her Eyes as Williams' tartish character must make amends and physically save or resurrect life to "replace" the ones she took away with her unbridled lust.

While it does have its moments of sheer power and gives Williams a real "one woman show" style to display her amazing capability to convey emotion despite our wish that she was offered something far better than this work-- in the end it buries itself an even deeper grave. Embodied in an arc that at first seemed chilling and intriguing-- we find Williams narrating letters she's written to Osama Bin Laden as part of the healing process to deal with her loss that move from poignant to ridiculous by the film's conclusion with lines that have been quoted verbatim in countless reviews in utter disbelief.

A well-intentioned film that nonetheless "blows apart"-- to borrow from its tagline-- by the "truth" that it's all flash and spark that ignites us more from shock than by anything from the picture as a whole; in fact, you'll discover that much like Life Before Her Eyes and Blindness, you'll grow even warier of it the day after the one hundred minute work concludes and you can start wrapping your head around what you've seen.

Of course, I must admit that it's always nice to see the natural chemistry between Williams and McGregor and this pleasant admiration would be even stronger if the two were actually allowed to act opposite one another in a film that's worth their considerable talents. Moreover, let's hope that next time for the sake of the women of London's East End who may not appreciate the idea that they're all nameless and interchangeable or journalists who will do anything for a story-- we find them moving away from anything resembling a conspiracy and perhaps towards something that--horror of horrors, may actually involve a smile or come without a warning of serious post-traumatic depression.

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TV on DVD: Long Way Down

Having completed a 20,000 mile motorcycle journey from London to New York in 2004 with the successful television series, Long Way Round, most people would've believed that riders Ewan McGregor and his best friend Charley Boorman had had if not the adventure of a lifetime than had earned themselves a nice, long break to relax with their families for a few years. But, speaking as the daughter of a man who has the motorcycle bug himself, that's just not how bikers operate. It's always the next trip, the next experience, and the next adventure that entices and while most average bikers are fine trekking around these fifty states, McGregor and Boorman still have that boyhood twinkle of mischief in their eyes and one instantly knows that they won't be content to just ride around the U.K. and wave at passersby blasting "Born to be Wild" on their iPods.

No, instead, they made plans for a second international journey and while one initially thought it was wise they were dropping the mileage down 5,000 miles to a 15,000 mile route, I can only imagine the look of shock on the faces of their family and friends when they announced that their follow-up adventure, entitled Long Way Down would find McGregor and Boorman traveling through as many as 20 countries making their way from John O'Groats, Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa, "descending through Western Europe and Africa before arriving at the southern most tip of the continent," as the DVD box explains. A journey throughout the whole of Africa and the kicker is, the duo have never been there before.

Re-teaming with the same group with whom they worked alongside for Long Way Round, Down finds the two riders as well as Claudio Von Planta (cameraman and head director of photography), cameraman Jimmy Simak, producers Russ Malkin and David Alexanian, a medic and security man, and of course the latest BMW model in the Adventure bikes series-- namely the R1200GS Adventure-- all ready for action.

View the Promo

Beginning their trek on May 12, 2007 and concluding on August 4, 2007-- the 10 episode series which has been played on the BBC during its production and here in the states on the Fox Reality Channel this past August, is finally making its way to DVD shelves in this incredible digital transfer onto a 3-Disc set, loaded with extra material including previously unseen footage, interactive route maps, a photo gallery, and McGregor and Boorman's African documentary entitled The Missing Face.

Following the men from the initial planning stages (check out the map here) as they set up shop in London and begin to try and tackle all of the foreseeable hurdles they'll encounter including one woman employed for "visa" patrol in ensuring the eight-men crew can make roughly twenty border crossings uninterrupted but in the end, the American members are denied access to certain countries. Additionally, they undergo strength and conditioning work, survival exercises as well as a hostility training course to face the human threat of a continent where people frequently go missing and machine gunfire is a regular occurrence.

Following an intense hostage training exercise where Charley learns the hard way not to ever try and abandon his group, they end up contemplating body armor or bullet proof glass on their SUVs before disaster strikes at home when Ewan cracks his ankle on a routine motorcycle ride in his neighborhood. However, eventually the journey begins and this time, they're in for yet another surprise when Eve, Ewan's wife who's never climbed aboard a motorcycle in her life, makes the decision that not only will she learn to ride but she wants to meet up with the guys in the eighth episode when they cross into Tanzania and head onto Malawi.

Although Eve, like Ewan and Charley had undergone some bike training before the journey, there's discussion in the first episode regarding the safety of having two parents in an unpredictable landscape together should disaster strike whether it's in the form of violence or a simple accident on the sand and viewers are left as nervous and apprehensive as some of the show's producers about the decision.

With eight men traveling together, there are stretches when they begin to wear on each other's nerves and a few instances when some are barely speaking as an ultra-tense Charley, still on edge about his ill wife who insisted he leave on schedule, is detained at London Gatwick Airport after mentioning the word "bomb" and must meet up with the men later. However, throughout the journey, it's the lure of adventure and the importance of working together (whether it's when vehicles are stuck in the mud or when the elements attack) that make them put aside any petty grievances.

An excellent and gorgeously photographed travelogue that shows not just the majestic beauty of Africa but also its tragic history as the men deliver goods on behalf of UNICEF and also visit the genocide museum and site of other horrific tragedies, yet the one area where Long Way Down falls short is one with which I think our riders would wholeheartedly agree. With a breakneck three month schedule of 15,000 miles, the men end up having to do so much riding that they're unable to take in enough of the landscape and perhaps get a far more accurate picture of life, instead of constantly being forced to zip by along the endless sandy roads.

Filled with self-deprecating humor by the leads, especially when McGregor and Boorman tour the set of the original Star Wars (now a makeshift museum) and McGregor isn't noticed by any tourist there (which is an amusing blow to the ego) as well as some truly moving scenes as we meet the child survivors who'd been abducted and forced into Ugandan armies, it's an effective, high quality documentary series on a number of levels.

Far richer than most "reality shows," I hesitate to give it such a label that would place it in the same category as Wife Swap and Wipe Out, but best experienced as a humanistic documentary, the 3-disc set of Long Way Down is currently available in select stores and via Amazon along with a companion book, soundtrack and other materials from the original Long Way Round which started it all.

Ewan & Charley's Journey: An Episode Guide

Deception (2008)

Director: Marcel Langenegger

Groucho Marx once said he wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have someone like him for a member. And whether it’s the Ya Ya’s, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Little Rascals, or Fight Club, it seems as though Hollywood cinema’s growing increasingly cliquish. Yet, there seems to be something far more taboo about a movie that centers on a sex club. Let Brad Pitt and Edward Norton tear each other to shreds and make soap in Fincher’s film but when your main instigator for a plot is the existence of a sex club, filmmakers tend to get a bit cautious which is why director Marcel Langenegger’s film, initially named The List and then The Tourist ended up with Deception in a hopefully “third time’s the charm” strategy. Yet, as The San Francisco Chronicle noted, "Be wary of movies that change titles. It may mean the filmmakers don't know what they're making."

And in Deception’s case, that’s most likely true. Of course, the subject matter doesn’t help—unlike something as admirable as community service organizations, membership in an elite, secretive, anonymous sex club is not something you’d want to add to the Volunteer Experience section of your resume and most likely something people would want to keep private, much like attending each and every Star Trek Convention as your favorite character or for single girls who’ve always dreamed of a royal princess styled wedding, every so often dropping by boutiques in order to try on bridal gowns when they’re anything but engaged.

Indeed, and more than not wanting to belong to such a depraved club that would have someone like you for a member, it’s probably the same type of club where you wouldn’t exactly want to associate with anyone that would actually be a member as well as most likely neither one would respect the other in the morning. Besides, even if you did go out, you’d both have the dirty goods on each other for the rest of your life. Yet, just like I’ve heard friends and relatives swear they’d never date someone they met at a bar or nightclub, often they end up doing just that as in our hectic lives, proximity is key as it’s difficult to forge new friendships—let alone relationships post-college.

So the sad, lonely account Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) whose temporary work auditing large corporations keeps him always on the go with few personal acquaintances is double the mark when he gets both a new best friend (producer and star Hugh Jackman) and falls for a beguiling blonde (Michelle Williams), also involved in “the list.” Of course, it doesn’t begin that way, although director Langenegger sets the film’s tone with the night time janitorial staff getting more action than our pathetic buttoned up, bespectacled hero before out of the blue he’s chatted up by an affable corporate lawyer named Wyatt (Jackman).

And although they wear identical crisp white shirts and business ties, their backgrounds couldn’t be more different as Wyatt shares his stories of privilege and Jonathan reveals a tragic, blue-collar background, yet it’s McGregor’s character that does most of the talking which owes as much to Jackman’s easygoing demeanor as it does to the social lubricant of marijuana. Having the best time since he’d attended a Van Halen concert as Jonathan girlishly gushes to his new B.F.F., he’s startled when Jackman notes that McGregor had talked for thirty seven minutes straight. Of course, the weed doesn’t do much for Jonathan’s memory of their talk but sensing a like-minded friend, the two begin hanging out, bonding quickly over doubles tennis with perky blondes until Jackman ups the ante by bringing him to a seedy nightclub.

While the meek and easily flustered McGregor, who admits that he’s only slept with four women, confesses that he once dialed an adult phone line but only worked up enough courage to offer professional tax advice on the woman’s new Escalade purchase, he does seem intrigued when he spots a beautiful blonde one night on the subway (Michelle Williams). And after Wyatt has to head to London to take care of a major business deal, he and Jonathan accidentally switch cell phones and it’s only a matter of time for Wyatt’s phone to begin ringing off the hook (if cell phones had hooks) with mysterious calls from women that begin with the question, “Are you free tonight?” Initially hesitant, McGregor follows through and becomes initiated into the group of elite working professionals too busy for a personal life. Eager to help him along the way is Forbes Magazine cover story subject Charlotte Rampling’s down-to-Earth woman who prefers not only “the economics of the arrangement,” but especially the idea of “intimacy without intricacy.” Additionally, it’s she who explains to him how exactly it all works.

The Rules of the List



Suddenly a convert to life on the list and obsessively taking part, Jonathan is thrown for a loop one night when the stranger he meets is none other than the woman he’d noticed at the subway (played by Michelle Williams). Feeling a bit creepy in recognizing someone from the outside world, he proceeds to break all the rules as they order room service and chat over dinner, fall asleep next to one another and go out again the next night. Intriguingly, she doesn’t reciprocate in Jonathan’s over-eagerness to divulge personal information and although the two connect, the lack of knowledge he knows about the woman he simply regards as “S” thanks to a ornament on her handbag becomes an increasingly major problem when she disappears and he’s the last one to see her alive.

With a suspicious detective all too eager to slap the cuffs on Jonathan, he quickly realizes what we have known all along which is to beware of smiling strangers offering candy or whatever version of “candy” that appeals to the Little Red Riding Hood in all of us. Of course, from the moment Jackman’s smooth-talking Wyatt sets foot onscreen, we knew that something was rotten in Denmark, or more precisely Manhattan and anyone who’s seen far superior works in the genre from The Spanish Prisoner to House of Games to Body Heat or Matchstick Men sees the major twist coming within the first ten minutes.

However, much to our annoyance, the purportedly bright Jonathan takes far too long to get a ticket to the clue bus and halfway through the movie I wanted to shout at him to walk into the nearest Blockbuster Video and rent not just the aforementioned films but also the Cinemax styled sleaze-fest Derailed (starring Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston) as he seemed to have walked right into a blender containing all of these films. While murder enters the equation as does mistaken identity and trickery, the twists never really manage to surprise (of course the film’s ultimate title after the previous two failures serves as a plot spoiling theme) and for a film that advertises itself as erotic, it’s downright icy and roughly as titillating as an episode of Antiques Roadshow.

Theatrical Trailer





While it’s pretty trash,y it may be worth watching just as a fan of the actors which is why I invested my time in it and Jackman shows a nice layer of subtle danger that should be explored in a better film. However, disappointingly McGregor slips in and out of a New York accent and Williams needed far more character development for us to care about her on anything other than a surface level as someone who’s admired her talent since Dawson’s Creek.

The standout of the film is in the cinematography by the legendary Dante Spinotti—an expert at filming noir-inspired night work with a quality distinctly his own (Heat, L.A. Confidential) which makes for a gorgeous widescreen DVD transfer, elevating the film and making it probably far more satisfying as a guilty B movie pleasure DVD than it was on the big screen.

With English, Spanish and French audio tracks and subtitles in both English and Spanish, the disc, recently released in stores, also contains directorial commentary, making of featurettes, additional footage and a T.M.I. (too much info) segment about the existence of actual sex clubs, but ultimately, I have to go back to the legendary Groucho Marx that overall, Deception is one club of which most viewers (including this one) wouldn’t want to become a member.