The Ghost Writer (2010)
Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on March 4, 2010 @ tonymacklin.net.
The Ghost Writer could be the companion piece to Shutter Island.
Actually, Shutter Island should be the companion piece to The Ghost Writer, since The Ghost Writer is the better film.
Both movies have a remarkable amount in common. Perhaps it's no wonder, since their directors have a kinship of talent and vision.
Both are aging masters -- Roman Polanski, who directed The Ghost Writer, is 76, and Marty Scorsese, who helmed Shutter Island, is 67. That's 143 years of living, breathing movie heritage.
In the last decade both directors won their first Oscar for direction -- Polanski for The Pianist (2002) and Scorsese for The Departed (2006). It was a long time coming for each.
Both directors were creative stalwarts during the 1970s, which many of us think was the greatest decade in American film history. [1939 was the greatest single year.]
Polanski made the classic Chinatown (1974) and Scorsese made the classic Taxi Driver (1976) during that glorious time.
The prevailing theme in films of the 1970s was alienation, and irony abounded. Many films in the 1970s were unique, creative, and -- most of all -- personal. Polanski and Scorsese were among the most personal of directors.
In 2010 perhaps the main difference between Shutter Island and The Ghost Writer is that it seems as though Scorsese is paging through his encyclopedia of movies, and Polanski is writing in his diary.
The Ghost Writer is the tale of a ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) who is hired to rework the memoirs of England's former prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), after the original ghost writer's body was found on the shore in Martha's Vineyard, where Lang sometimes lives.
The new ghost writer goes to the island, where he "interviews" Lang and tries to invigorate the manuscript. When Lang is accused of past war crimes for turning over four terrorists for torture, it brings extra focus on the manuscript. Media chaos descends on the island hideaway.
The Ghost Writer says, "I'm not an investigative reporter," but he becomes one. There are mysteries to decipher and deadly threats to try to escape.
In the contemporary world of The Ghost Writer, Google, GPS, and cell phones are the instruments of knowledge.
The cast is excellent. Ewan McGregor is ideal as the glib, initially uninvolved writer, who becomes immersed in intrigue and then is galvanized to pursue truth.
Pierce Brosnan is fine as the former prime minister under assault. Olivia Williams and Kim Cattrall are effective as the two women in Lang's life. Tom Wilkinson give one of his patented performances as a deceptive man of intrigue.
The photography by Pawel Edelman -- who also did The Pianist -- is palpable, and the music by Alexander Desplat is effective but not intrusive.
The Ghost Writer and Shutter Island invite a comparison because they are similar in so many ways. The two films even begin with similar images -- a boat approaches an island. The islands are enshrouded with fog and pelted with a cold rain during both movies. Both movies are dismally evocative.
Many of the significant images are similar, e.g. especially fluttering paper.
We have two films that deal with isolation and unfolding mystery. But Shutter Island lapses into contrivance; The Ghost Writer has twists, but doesn't sacrifice credibility.
Both movies are adapted from novels, but only Robert Harris -- the novel writer of The Ghost Writer -- does the screenplay [with director Polanski]. The Ghost Writer is not pulpy and lurid as Shutter Island intentionally is. The Ghost Writer is lean and provocative.
One of the best elements Shutter Island and The Ghost Writer have in common is their tantalizing use of dualities -- meaningful pairs.
Polanski in Chinatown made perhaps the best use of dualities ever in movies. In The Ghost Writer he returns to this fertile technique, and it really pays off.
There are two ghost writers -- "ghosts" -- two women, two sinister thugs who chase the writer, two places of living, two CIA agents, two major British politicians, hotel room 201, and on and blessedly on.
The thing that made Chinatown most personal was that Polanski's wife Sharon Tate had been murdered by the Manson cult. Polanski changed screenwriter Robert Towne's upbeat ending and replaced it with one that exuded personal despair.
In The Ghost Writer one can imagine that Polanski is channeling some of his present day dilemmas and demons.
Polanski edited The Ghost Writer from a jail cell in prison in Switzerland. He was arrested in Zurich on September 26, 2009, when he visited Switzerland to receive a lifetime achievement award.
In 1977 he had fled from the United States after pleading guilty to "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor" -- a 13-year old girl. Polanski feared the judge was going to reject the plea bargain. There has been a warrant out for his arrest for more than 30 years.
After spending more than two months in jail, Polanski has been moved to house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland, awaiting a decision on extradition back to the U.S. [Scorsese has called for his release.]
Obviously, Polanski's personal experience is relevant -- as it always has been -- to his art.
The Ghost Writer is a stylistic thriller -- worthy of the 1970s -- by a very personal fugitive.
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