The Ghost Writer (2010) director: Roman Polanski (Rating = 4 = I liked it a lot)
Polanski is a great filmmaker, and he’s in top form here. He knows how to keep the suspense churning and your brain working as his everyman (Ewan McGregor as the intrepidly clever ghost writer) unravels a chain of conspiracy that begins with his assignment to ghost the autobiography of an ex-Prime Minister, a Tony Blair-like charmer played by Pierce Brosnan. Delicious acting turns by Brosnan, Olivia Williams as his livid, neglected wife and counselor, Tom Wilkinson as a shady Harvard professor with great connections, and 94-year-old Eli Wallach as a Martha’s Vinyard hermit with a vital bit of information. This is a movie about atmospherics, and Polanski turns it into the grayest, rainiest movie I’ve ever seen. The isolated Vinyard beach house setting in winter (really a North Sea beach house) nicely mirrors the mood of foul doings in high places.
Overjoyed to read your very positive words about Polanski and this film. Here in France every review or mention of him or the film goes hand in hand with milking the scandal.
ReplyDeleteFor me the setting (isolated beach house) and Eli Wallach added that little so very important 'something' to the entire film, but that - of course - besides the delicious Brosnan, Ewan McGregor, and Olivia Williams.
Great filmmaker, great actors, great atmosphere, good to see Polanski at his Polanski's best again.
It's a truism that great arists seldom have great lives. Polanski is certainly a Hall of Fame filmmaker. I'm curious as to the French coverage. Is there any hint of the great artist being persecuted by an overzealous prosecutor and judge? This is a minor strand in the US press where the perverse Polanski's sins predominate.
ReplyDeleteOh, they do mention that the prosecutor and judge are still after him, in spite of the now adult victim asking them to drop the case, but when it comes to his work it is constantly overshadowed by his perversions and if they mention one of his films (The Ghost Writer was mentioned once or twice) it is immediately followed by the fact that he is still under house arrest in Gstaad. Blahblahblah.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, all has gone quiet about the Catholic Church, the Pope and those scandals. Interesting, but infuriating.
A small bit of consolation on the RC church scandal: I have a good-Catholic friend in DC who is deeply outraged about the Pope's refusal to take responsibility, the Vatican's attempts to spin the blame elsewhere, and his local priest's efforts to defend the Pope.
ReplyDeleteI know, I know, not all Catholics are as Catholic as the Pope, Rasoir, and the decent Catho people I know in this very Catho country are as outraged as your friend, but HELL ... that old man is supposed to guard his flock. He doesn't, didn't and won't.
ReplyDeleteSuper consolation: the part-time priest of 'our' church (I'm a good Jewish girl but love talking with him)did ask me for a short story I wrote called 'Counting Sheep?. He translated it (he speaks ENGLISH!) and read it, last Sunday, in another, much bigger church nearby. It was received with thundering silence. What courage, non? Great guy, honest guy, and one with balls.
When all is said and done, this must be so painful for good Catholics and especially for good, honest priests.
By the by, today another scandal came above water, this time really involving the Pope.