Polanski’s ‘Ghost Writer’ not his best

Little things can take you out of Roman Polanski’s intriguing political thriller “The Ghost Writer.” Things such as the
way the actors mouth swear words but somehow end up uttering mild oaths
to earn a PG-13 rating. Odd accents and alien locations give away that
Polanski’s mostly-American set film plainly wasn’t filmed here.

And then there’s the little matter of the filmmaker’s increasingly complicated fugitive-from-justice status.

But the movie itself is a fairly involving and
reasonably puzzling murder mystery from a couple of master storytellers
— the Oscar-winning director and British novelist Robert Harris (“Enigma,” “Fatherland”).

Ewan McGregor is a successful author whose agent lands
him a doozy of a deal. He’ll polish and/or rewrite the memoirs of a
newly retired British prime minister and he’ll be paid handsomely for
it.

A wrinkle — the prime minister, played by Pierce Brosnan and plainly based on Tony Blair, is controversial. There’s even talk of a war crimes indictment based on his coziness with the American-led war on terror.

Another complication — there’s just one month to do
this job. And “the ghost” will need to fly to America to interview with
the PM. There are palace intrigues as the assistant (Kim Cattrall, cast against type) and wife (Olivia Williams)
engage in a power struggle. The ghost is mugged on his way out of the
meeting with the publisher (James Belushi, REALLY cast against type).

Oh, and the previous ghost writer, the PM’s longtime aide, drowned under mysterious circumstances.

Not for the first time, the ghost asks his agent, “What have you gotten me into?”

The writer and his subject meet and size each other
up, then settle down to work, or would, if the whole world hadn’t
collapsed around them. Before he knows it, our “Ghost” (that’s how he’s
addressed) is sucked into the PM’s circle, doing damage control as the
press and protesters converge on the Massachusetts island where they’re holed up. And the ghost keeps getting clues that there were dangerous things the previous ghost found out.

Polanski doesn’t over-sell the chills, turning this
into more of a mind-game exercise, rather like his equally rain-swept
“Death and the Maiden.” Brosnan does politically “mercurial” well,
McGregor handles the writer-in-over-his-head bit with skill and
Williams makes for a convincing, angry, mistrustful spouse. Tom Wilkinson shows up as a cagey, old college “chum” of the prime minister’s, and Eli Wallach is an elderly islander who offers some pieces of the puzzle.

That puzzle, however, may solve itself in your head
long before the flatly staged chases and confrontations of the third
act. That is, if you’re not distracted by the oddly European deck hands
of the Massachusetts ferry boat, the bizarre accents of barmen and hotel clerks, and the like.

It’s not one of Polanski’s masterpieces, but “The
Ghost Writer” doesn’t dilute his reputation as a master of suspense.
It’s a pity he has let his ongoing off-camera problems so dampen how we
see his work on camera.

The Ghost Writer

2 1/2 stars

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Kim Cattrall, Tom Wilkinson

Director: Roman Polanski

Running time: 2 hours, 4 minutes

Industry rating: PG-13 for language, brief nudity/sexuality, some violence and a drug reference

—

(c) 2010, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.