Ewan the Friendly Ghost

The Ghost – Roman Polanski

Recently I’ve been having trouble with really recognising when a film will be shit or not, and considering i rarely read other people’s reviews, only that of certain people i trust, The Ghost or The Ghost Writer, depending on where you’re from, didn’t seem to jump out at me when i heard about it. It has Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and not many other people. It’s a small cast with recognisable faces like Tom Wilkinson but it doesn’t have the presence you’d suspect from a really great thriller suspense film that clearly deserves more recognition. It’s artistic, it’s humorous, it’s interesting and it draws you in from the get go. Your never force fed information, your never drawn away from the plot and the main characters but at the same time it feels new, it feels different, mainly to do with the plot surrounding a recent ex-prime minister who is being charged for offensives he may not have done, horrible war crimes. The new ghost writer, Ewan appears and is given the task to finish Brosnan book full of secret memoirs, so secret that he has relocated to a deserted island, only reachable by ferry. In this secret house, Ewan is given the task to go through the manuscript and find out for himself what is true or not and after digging around, finds information that doesn’t connect, leading to a satisfying and interesting end which i never saw coming. And that rarely happens for me, as i normally can tell “who did it” or “who will die”.

Ranging from some great performances, to a lush cinematography and being directed by, somewhat controversy and somewhat legendary visionary Roman Polanski, it shows the great flair and style that many directors don’t have. With lingering establishing shots and a mix of up close and personal shots, the pace is slow throughout but picks up when needed to. This defiantly is a well crafted film with a great script and subtle enough not to make you annoyed. The suspense and thriller aspects of the film are well done and i can’t really find fault with it. It’s not your typical successful film, but it does the job and i thoroughly surprised by how much i enjoyed it, it was a change from the usual shit i have to watch from the boring, unfunny comedies to the over-the-top senseless action epics which rely too much on camerawork instead of story and script. So i recommend checking this out for an adult watch.

7/10

Simon Childs