Based on Robert Harris'novel The Ghost, the film concerns anunnamed British writer (sharp-tongued Ewan McGregor) hired to rewrite atroubled work in progress, the memoirs of former British Prime Minister AdamLang (an unctuous Pierce Brosnan). Analogies to the real world are too obviousto overlook. Once the shining example of Cool Britannia, Lang has lost face;his obsequious behavior with a certain American president led to the invasionof Iraq and other policiesunpopular in the United Kingdom and abroad. And like his apparentmodel, Tony Blair, Lang is a personable glad-hander, the youthful face of Britain'sLabour Party in the '90s. In The GhostWriter, the deposed politician is holed up on the remote estate of anAmerican tycoon, the CEO of an evil corporation called Hatherton(Halliburton?), reminiscing over better days with a little editorial assistance.When Lang's first ghostwriter turns up dead on the beach of the island estate,McGregor reluctantly becomes his replacement. His qualms are only eased in partby the huge fee.
“There's something notquite right about this project,” says the stuffy English editor at thepublishing giant behind the memoirs. More prophetic words were seldom spoken.The “Ghost” (as McGregor's character calls himself) is mugged on his way home;the assailants grab only his manuscript case and speed away on a motorbike.When he finally arrives by plane and ferryboat at Lang's heavily guardedseaside hideaway, he finds the work left by his predecessor under lock and key,the seemingly innocuous if self-serving narrative treated as a state secret.The mood on the wintry, wind-blasted island grows even colder when theInternational Criminal Court indicts Lang for ordering the kidnapping ofBritish subjects of Pakistani descent and handing them to the CIA forwaterboarding. Although protected by American officials, he is hounded by aformer political colleague and faces arrest if he returns home.
The Ghost Writer comes from a template similar toPolanski's 1999 thriller, The Ninth Gate.Both films are based on best-selling genre fiction and involve a mercenary inthe world of books who finds himself on a journey into fear and darkness. Bothare set in rarefied circles of wealth, intellect and influence, where hiddennetworks of power converge to dangerous effect. At the heart of The NinthGate is the deadly pursuit of a rare occult manuscript; in The Ghost Writer, Lang's secretivememoirs are worth killing for. A droll but dark sense of humor crackles beneathboth films. And there are always women of dubious loyalty, the position filledthis time by Lang's embittered wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams in a masterfulperformance).
Polanski hasn'tforgotten how to move a film forward with taut cinematic rhythms, vital visualclues and edge-of-the-seat suspense. TheGhost Writer runs more than two hours, yet the pace never slackens and thestory is free of dead-end digressions. As the conspiracy unfolds, it alsoreveals an artist who was peevish about American politics even before the longarm of the Los Angeles district attorney foundhim in Switzerland.
