Plot
A nameless British ghostwriter is hired by London-based publishing firm Rhinehart, Inc. to complete the autobiography of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang after the original ghost, Lang's aide Mike McAra, dies in a supposed drowning accident. The Ghost travels to Old Haven on Martha's Vineyard, where Lang and his wife Ruth are staying at a complex with Lang's personal assistant, Amelia Bly. As Lang's time as prime minister is marred by his involvement in the War on Terror, the Ghost encounters anti-war demonstrators and activists who are protesting Lang's presence on the island.
As the Ghost works on the book, former British Foreign Secretary Richard Rycart accuses Lang of authorizing the extraordinary rendition of terrorists. Lang faces prosecution by the International Criminal Court if he leaves the United States and is rushed to Washington, DC for PR, while the Ghost finds a hidden envelope in McAra's desk, containing photographs and a phone number. The evidence contradicts Lang's claim that he and Ruth met at Cambridge University and the Ghost is surprised to find the phone number is Rycart's.
The Ghost probes the death of McAra and investigates the shore where his body was found, where he is told by a resident the tides would not deposit a body on the beach. The Ghost grows more suspicious when Ruth reveals that Lang and McAra argued the night before he died. The Ghost uses McAra's old car to return to his hotel, but instead follows re-programmed directions on the car's satellite navigation system. This takes him to the Belmont home of Professor Paul Emmett, whom the Ghost questions. He denies ever having met McAra and having only a cursory acquaintance with Lang, becoming more evasive when the Ghost presents him with evidence that shows otherwise.
The Ghost attempts to return to Martha's Vineyard, but remains on the mainland when he is followed to the ferry. With no one else to turn to, he phones Rycart for help, who agrees to a meeting. The Ghost researches links between Emmett, a military contractor and the CIA, while Rycart reveals McAra discovered Lang's involvement in so-called "torture flights", in which terrorist suspects were tortured while airborne on private planes. When the Ghost discusses Emmett's relationship with Lang, Rycart recounts how Lang's decisions as Prime Minister uniformly benefited US interests, and says McAra found new evidence, which he wrote about in the "beginning of the manuscript", but they find nothing written in the early pages.
Bly contacts the Ghost, offering to have him flown back to Old Haven aboard Lang's private executive jet on its return from DC; Rycart encourages the Ghost to do so. On board, Lang angrily refutes the Ghost's suggestion of him being recruited as a CIA agent by Emmett. When the plane lands in Old Haven, Lang is assassinated by an activist, and the Ghost is subsequently asked to complete the book for posthumous publication. At the book's launch in London, the Ghost learns that Emmett, who is in attendance, was Ruth's tutor when she was at Harvard. After Bly mentions the "beginnings" of the original manuscript, the Ghost inspects that the first word of each chapter, discovering the message, "Lang's wife Ruth was recruited as a CIA agent by Professor Paul Emmett of Harvard University." The Ghost passes a note to Ruth revealing his discovery, resulting in her becoming perturbed; she attempts to confront him but the Ghost leaves the building and attempts to flag down a taxi in the street, when a car accelerates in his direction and the pages of the manuscript scatter in the wind.
Production
The North Sea ferry MS SyltExpress that was used as the Martha's Vineyard ferry in the film
Polanski had originally teamed with Robert Harris for a film of Harris's novel Pompeii , [7] but the project was cancelled because of the looming actors' strike that autumn. [8] [9]
Polanski and Harris then turned to Harris's recent best seller, The Ghost . They co-wrote a script and in November 2007, just after the book's release, Polanski announced filming for autumn 2008. [10] In June 2008, Nicolas Cage, Pierce Brosnan, Tilda Swinton and Kim Cattrall were announced as the stars. [11] Production was then postponed by a number of months, with Ewan McGregor and Olivia Williams replacing Cage and Swinton, respectively, as a result.
The film finally began production in February 2009 in Germany, at the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam. Germany stood in for London and Martha's Vineyard. The majority of exteriors, set on Martha's Vineyard, were shot on the island of Sylt in the North Sea, and on the ferry MS SyltExpress. The harbor exterior were shot on both the German island of Sylt, and the Danish island of Rømø. The exterior set of the house where much of the film takes place, however, was built on the island of Usedom, in the Baltic Sea. Exteriors and interiors set at a publishing house in London were shot at Charlottenstrasse 47 in downtown Berlin (Mitte), while Strausberg Airport near Berlin stood in for the Vineyard airport. [12] A few brief exterior shots for driving scenes were shot by a second unit in Massachusetts, without Polanski or the actors. [13]
On his way to the Zurich Film Festival, Polanski was arrested by Swiss police in September 2009 at the request of the US and held for extradition. Due to Polanski's arrest, post-production was briefly put on hold, but he resumed and completed work from house arrest at his Swiss villa. He was unable to participate in the film's world premiere at the Berlinale festival on 12 February 2010. [14]
Non-fictional allusions
Pierce Brosnan plays the character of Adam Lang, who has echoes of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The character is linked to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the war on terror and the special relationship with the United States. The author of the book on which the film is based has said he was inspired at least in part by anger toward Blair's policies, and called for him to face war crimes trials. [15]
Robert Pugh, who portrayed the former British Foreign Secretary, Richard Rycart, and Mo Asumang, who played the US Secretary of State, both physically resemble their real-life counterparts, Robin Cook and Condoleezza Rice. Like the fictional Rycart, Cook had foreign policy differences with the British Prime Minister. The old man living on Martha's Vineyard is a reference to Robert McNamara. [16]
Reception
Box office
The film achieved only modest success, grossing $60.3 million [2] against a budget of $45 million. [2]
Critical response
The film has received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 84% of critics gave positive reviews based on a sample of 210 reviews with an average rating of 7.4/10. [21] The website's critics consensus reads, "While it may lack the revelatory punch of Polanski's finest films, Ghost Writer benefits from stylish direction, a tense screenplay, and a strong central performance from Ewan McGregor." [21] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, gave the film an average rating of 77% based on 35 reviews. [22] At the end of the year, the film placed at #4 in both Film Comment and The Village Voice 's annual critics' polls. [23] [24]
Critic Andrew Sarris wrote that the film "constitutes a miracle of artistic and psychological resilience." [25] Roger Ebert gave the film a full four stars and declared it was "the work of a man who knows how to direct a thriller." [26] Jim Hoberman of The Village Voice placed the film at #3 on his year-end list and wrote that " The Pianist had its moments, but Polanski hasn't made a movie so sustained in the decades since The Tenant or even 1966's Cul de Sac ." [27] Jonathan Rosenbaum would later write that "The Ghost Writer is easily Polanski's best film since Bitter Moon, and certainly his most masterful." [28] Political analyst William Bradley dubbed it "one of the best films I've seen in recent years" in a review for The Huffington Post that dealt with the film's artistic and political dimensions. [29] The Guardian said "Roman Polanski's deft take on Robert Harris's political thriller is the director's most purely enjoyable film for years." [30]
However, John Rentoul from the UK's The Independent , who describes himself as an "ultra Blairite with a slavish admiration for Tony", and John Rosenthal, from the conservative Pajamas Media, both denounced the film because it was made with financial support from the German government. Rentoul also criticized Polanski, describing the film as "propaganda" and a "Blair hating movie". [31]
Keith Uhlich of Time Out New York named The Ghost Writer the second-best film of 2010, describing it as "what an expertly executed thriller is supposed to be." [32]
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