Movie of My Week: "The Ghost Writer" (2010)
Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 12:06AM 
From IMDb:
A ghostwriter hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.
I didn't know anything about this movie beforehand other than Ewan McGregor was in it, along with Pierce Brosnan playing a Tony Blair-like Brit PM just out of power. Ewan gets hired to ghost his memoirs.
Oh, and Olivia Williams plays his scheming wife. I've always had a thing for her because she reminds me so much of Vonne.
Cool cameos by Jim Belushi and Timothy Hutton--both spot on. Great role with Kim Cattrall doing a great Brit accent. Wee bit of Eli Wallach to boot, and Tim Wilkinson in a pivotal scene. My goodness, what not to like?
It's a political thriller, of course, but frankly, what really sells this whole movie for me is the scenery! It takes place on this coolest Mass coast island (Vineyard?) venue with a beach house I would kill for.
Plus, it's about a writer and all that, and it's got all the requisite tension, thanks to great direction from Roman Polanski (I kept saying to myself while I watched, this is like somebody channeling Polanski and then his name came up on credit!). Fun for me, because I was actually approached a while back to consider doing this for somebody of that type.
But again, it was the scenery and the house and that whole nasty, dark, windy beach vibe that had me enthralled. I just wanted to walk onto the screen and live there. Truly, I would consider it a dream retirement situation. I love nothing better than walks on the beech along New England's coast during the winter, and I would gladly leave the mainland for an island situation like that, having loved living on Aquidneck Island so much.
I would even write somebody else's life story to make it happen.
Anyway, great movie. Really top notch and pretty to watch from beginning to end.
Reader Comments (5)
I'll have to see it.... I got an extra role in a Pierce Brosnan movie back in around 1990 that Brosnan starred in called THE HEIST. Didn't know anything about the biz, except learning about SAG and residuals!
So I asked the director, Stuart Ormy, if I could say a few words to Brosnan, not know an extra wasn't suppose to talk to the 'Director'. Ormy apparently loved my suggestion or balls and I got two lines, that got cut to two words, and I got about $17, 000 in residuals over as many years for 2 scenes and two days of work.
That was the beginning of my interest in film.
I liked the movie too, Tom. The sccenery was good and the plot was interesting. My wife however felt differently and I was put on "movie selection probation" for a few weeks following. I still think it was a good movie.
Hi Tom,
I loved this movie too, especially the scenery. This was probably one of most well done political thrillers in years. After reading your comments I thought you might be interested to know all of the beach scenese were shot in Germany, as Roman Polanski, of course, is not allowed to enter the Untied States, not even fair Martha's Vineyard. He sure did a good job of making it feel like the U.S. island though.
I saw it on an airplane, then again in Australia.
I highly recommend the book as well, it was Robert Harris' best-selling book, The Ghost, which caused a fuss when it was published because of the obvious similarities between the fictional Adam Lang and Tony Blair.
Other Harris books I like include Archangel Stalin's long lost grandson [he fathered the boy from a young communist country girl] emerges from the northern forests, chased by a "CNN" style American reporter, and his historian sidekick, and tries to take power, in a long train ride from Murmansk(?) to Moscow, but is shot at the last stop before Moscow by the ex young communist's granddaughter. There was a BBC serial (3 episodes) based on this as well.
Sounds a bit soap-opera'ish the way I wrote the synopsis but it's much better than that.
Kim C. Can do a great british accent because she is British.
Look her up in wiki