The Ghost Writer

Intelligent, enjoyable and intriguing, THE GHOST WRITER will draw you deep into political intrigue.

Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge, Star Wars) is the author whose background is filled with pulp bios of celebrities when he lands a major gig to polish the memoirs of Adam Lang, the former UK Prime Minister. It seems the original ghost writer mysteriously washed up dead on the beach near Lang's home.

Lang, played to perfection by Pierce Brosnan, is a complicated man. Egotistical, angry & charming, he's like a powder keg of secrets and motives waiting to explode.

He's surrounded by his alienated wife Ruth (the excellent Olivia Williams from "The Sixth Sense") his ever present assistant Amelia (a strangely subdued Kim Cattrall) and a gaggle of advisors.

Tom Wilkinson and Eli Wallach are both legendary in supporting roles of consequence.

Lang is holed up in a compound on an island where the weather always looks imposing, the wind never stops howling and one controversy after another start breaking in the press.

Huge abuses of power begin to pop up in the press, fueled by Lang's adversaries. Or are they simply examples of having done the right thing in the moment and now being on the wrong side of a rapidly changing political climate?

This is a suspenseful character study/thriller with McGregor and Brosnan verbally dueling at its center.

When the action does break loose, we follow McGregor's writer on a cat and mouse search for the truth that leads to some very dangerous places.

That boring manuscript may contain some explosive secrets. The fact that the film never reveals the name of McGregor's character (he's simply known as The Ghost) should provide a clue to how close to the vest secrets are held in the film.

Topped off with one of the most haunting final shots I've seen in recent memory, THE GHOST WRITER avoids the specters of its controversial director and gets a B+.