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The Ghost Ewan Mcgregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Catrall, Olivia Williams, James Belushi, Tom Wilkinson,Robert Pugh, Timothy Hutton, dir. Roman Polanski, 2010, cert. 15
THE GHOST, based on the Robert Harris' novel, tells the story of a ghostwriter (Ewan Mcgregor) hired to finish the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan.) Soon after the Ghost arrives at the beach mansion where Lang is staying with wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and media-handler turned mistress Amelia (Kim Cattrall), controversy errupts. A high-ranking British official (Robert Pugh) accuses Lang of handing terrorists over to the CIA for torture - a war crime. As the Ghost works, he begins to uncover clues revealing a dark secret linking Lang to the CIA, and becomes suspicious of the circumstances which led to his predecessor's demise, who somehow managed to hide key information in the draft manuscript he left behind.
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MonkeyScore: 88% As the Ewan Mcgregor character pieces
clues together, director Roman Polanski creates a thoroughly menacing and claustrophobic atmosphere worthy of his early masterpieces. With his acute feel for intrigue, THE GHOST moves at an unrelenting pace, pitching the literally nameless Ghost against forces of such magnitude that there is no room left for an optimistic ending. While the comparisons to Hitchcock may be slightly over-cooked and headline grabbing, it is only fair to compare THE GHOST to earlier great Polanskis like Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist. Served by a phenomenal performance from Ewan Mcgregor, Polanski is able to deliver a movie that, while clocking in at over two hours, feels like a whirlwind. The atmospheric island setting and international quagmire add to the feeling of intense paranoia to bring off a fulfilling thriller that is also surprisingly funny at times, thanks to its superb dialogues. The parallels between Adam Lang's close ties to the White House, Irak War controversies and Tony Blair will get the conspiracy theorists' juices flowing, and no doubt generate a lot of interest from the media in the UK - all good publicity for a smashing film. A dark, gripping political thriller that will leave you guessing until the very end.
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