'The Ghost Writer' Review

Ewan McGregor in The Ghost Writer, directed by Roman Polanski. Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-ghost-writer/32030/main

Roman Polanski is still in the news with his ongoing legal troubles. We forget that he is a gifted film-maker. Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby are classics of their genre and still worth repeated viewings. Since his flight to Europe in 1977 to escape sentencing from morals charges, his output has been erratic. Without the American studio system that fostered these two films, he's been forced to work with lesser support although actors like Harrison Ford and Johnny Depp crossed the Atlantic to work with him with mixed results in Frantic (Ford) and The Ninth Gate (Depp). His version of Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles (shortened to Tess since most people have trouble pronouncing or spelling the novel's title), which I haven't seen since its release in 1979, is a good costume pic filmed in France substituting for England. Memories from his childhood escape from the Nazis helped with directing 2002's Holocaust drama, The Pianist, and earned him a Best Director Oscar. Like Woody Allen whose questionable morals made him scorned by many for falling in love with Mia Farrow's (his live-in lover) adopted daughter, Hollywood does forgive or ignore biography and recognizes talent with awards.

>>Polanski's new film is a political thriller that's been getting good reviews. Ewan MacGregor plays a writer coerced into helping a former prime minister (Pierce Brosnan) finish writing his memoirs after his ghost writer's body is found washed up on a beach. When certain facts about his subject's college days contradict those in a secret file hidden by his predecessor are found in his room sparks his curiosity, he begins to question the circumstances of his predeceasor's death. Besides dealing with his arrogant subject who's also facing war crimes charges and his shrewish, controlling wife (Olivia Williams), our writer begins on a dangerous path to seek the truth which might be hidden in the uncompleted manuscript. He's also not discreet as he blabs too much to Brosnan's enemies who feed his hunger for more evidence. He's way in over his head but too naive to know it.

>>This film is slow moving as builds up in suspense. You need to pay attention to the details that finally make sense at the conclusion. Good performances by all.