About.com Rating

Roman Polanski's Gripping Suspense Film Starring Ewan McGregor

A superb cast, a compelling narrative and a brooding atmosphere are the elements that make The Ghost Writer (2010) a superior entertainment. The movie is adapted from the novel The Ghost by Robert Harris, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Roman Polanski. The lead actor is Ewan McGregor, but he is well supported by Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, Olivia Williams, Timothy Hutton, Tom Wilkinson, James Belushi and Eli Wallach.


The central character is an unnamed ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) — call him "the ghost" — who is to be paid $250,000 for one month of intensive work. The ghost's job is to make a finished book out of a draft manuscript left by another ghostwriter when he died suddenly under mysterious circumstances. The book will be sold as a memoir by former British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), a man loathed by some who have lost loved ones in the Iraq War.

The ghost ends up in an isolated house with Lang, his angular wife (a terrific Olivia Williams) and his sexually attractive assistant (Kim Cattrall). The relationship between Lang and his wife is strained, and a complication arises when the ex-PM is charged with war crimes. As the ghost struggles to make sense of everything, he begins to uncover some secrets.

Although most of the characters are British, the setting is a cold, windy island off New England. The house is aggressively modernist, like those you see in architecture magazines. Polanski is marvelous at maintaining the suspense, yet he manages to occasionally lessen the tension slightly with some wry humor.

Three Featurettes

The bonus materials on the DVD containing The Ghost Writer are comprised of three featurettes with a total runtime of about half an hour. The best is the 11-minute "The Ghost Writer: Fiction or Reality?", in which writer Robert Harris admits the story was inspired by an interview of someone who wanted to have Tony Blair prosecuted for war crimes. The 12-minute "The Cast of The Ghost Writer" has interviews of the film's principal actors, who don't say much of interest, although Ewan McGregor mentions working on Sylt, an island off the northernmost part of mainland Germany that in the film stands in for what is apparently supposed to be Martha's Vineyard. Finally, there is the nine-minute "An Interview With Roman Polanski," in which the director says the house was actually a set built specifically for the movie.

As might be expected, the DVD ignores the fact that Polanski had to complete post-production of the film while he was under house arrest at his chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland. Polanski's legal woes stemmed from a 1977 incident in Los Angeles where he had sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Release Date: August 3, 2010
Total Runtime: 2 hours 8 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Language, Brief Nudity/Sexuality, Some Violence and a Drug Reference