Adam Lang, ex-PM of ten years sporting a dazzling grin and special relationship with the Americans, is forced to take refuge in the US as he finds himself facing charges of war-crimes for his role in facilitating the rendition of suspected terrorists to the Americans for torture. Indeed, the film unashamedly draws parallels with Tony and Cherie Blair, with the characters hardly coincidental. Brosnan sports the same cheese as the former Premier while Olivia Williams' Ruth Lang more than captures the haughtiness and look of Cherie. Kim Cattrall is cast as yet another adulterer in Lang's assistant and bit on the side, trying so hard to nail a British accent that a little bit of poo comes out. In this way there is a certain pleasure to be gained from imagining Brosnan and Williams as the Blairs. Even former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook is reprised in the role of Richard Rycart, outspoken critic of Lang's actions. It is a wonder the Blair's haven't filed a libel case, but then the extra unwanted publicity would hardly be most welcomed at a time when the Chilcot Inquiry is still ongoing.
It is not however the politicians who are focused on. McGregor is the protagonist as the dissolute ghostwriter, there only for the hefty cheque. In the midst of Lang's public indiscretions, he soon uncovers more in the former PM's past. Upon discovering the fate of the last ghostwriter he stumbles upon a potentially earth-shattering conspiracy, embarking down the same dangerous route as his predecessor to get to the truth. One thing which I found difficult to tell was whether McGregor really cared about his role or the fact that his character is so dissolute that he genuinely doesn't give two shits about finding perhaps the biggest mass-cover up of our lifetime. The character doesn't capture any of the emotions you would expect in such a scenario, which could just as easily be put down to poor acting making it difficult to tell which it really is.
The Ghost Writer is a slow, lengthy affair barely mustering even a car chase. In places it is even laborious. For such an esteemed director this is by far from his best. The last truly great film I can recall from Polanski was The Pianist, but there are glimmers of his traditional trademarks such as the use of architecture as a psychological mirror. For all its thinly veiled criticisms of the Blair regime, the film doesn't really attempt anything out of the box. Polanski has created a solid film, and that's about it. The twist was mildly enjoyable at the end but not wholly shocking. Groucho Marx springs to mind when he once said that "Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife".
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