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.
