Movies & TV Mar 4, 2010 at 4:00 am

The Ghost Writer and the Dead Career

Comments

1
If something will prevent the creepy author of this review from posting on the web, it's a win-win for everyone. He will not embarrass himself and the readers won't loose time.

2
I must apologize for this writer's review, as this is a very watchable movie, a thriller in true Polanski and the Hitchcock sense. Also may be an eye opener for some. See below.

May contain spoilers to the movie, “The Ghost Writer”

Some may believe Polanski’s movie "The Ghost Writer" bears no resemblance to reality, or his current situation.



In the movie two ghost writers, face the same corruption.

The first perishes under strange circumstances much as Polanski did in America due to Judicial Corruption at the Santa Monica Courthouse.

And just as there are two ghosts in the movie, so too are there two victims of Judicial corruption in reality.



The second victim suffers police brutality by undocumented White County of Los Angeles Sheriffs Deputies, for reporting Police cover up of her sexual assault complaint against a Santa Monica College photography teacher.



The same Judge for overseeing the police brutality in his courtroom was promoted to the California Court of Appeals on police brutality day, just as Jay S. Bybee who signed the Torture Memos for the Bush administration was promoted to the 9th Circuit Federal Appeal Court.



As Polanski plus another have been victimized by Judicial Misconduct in the same Santa Monica Courthouse, Polanski’s claim is substantiated because there is a Judicial double standard for sexual assault cases depending on who the perpetrator is:



Roman Polanski 



or 


A State employee, who then is assisted by corrupt police & the Court itself. 



The second victim sued in Federal District Court but got slowly tortured by Los Angeles County & Judge Jay S. Bybee's January 11th 2006 decision.

 Not sure if the prognosis is rosy?

Polanski’s movie "The Ghost Writer" warns viewers to not to seek truth, or expose political facts that Officials want covered up, because if you do, you may end up as a ghost.
3
Biased, much? Why no author credit?

Anyways, it's Polanski's best since [i]Bitter Moon[/i], which means it is very, very good. And no, his talent didn't vanish after [i]Chinatown[/i].
4
Dammit. Wrong codes.
5
@PeretDesnos: One thing you'll always be guaranteed to get with every Mercury film review: Plenty of bias! Also, this review was written by Mr. Zac Pennington--it was an oversight not to have him credited before, and I'll fix it now. Thanks for the heads up!
6
This film probably won't be very good, and yes, Polanski should be in prison. Although, that hasn't stopped me from seeing all of his movies up to this point, so I don't know why it would stop me now.

But this is not a film review. It's the kind of idiotic gibberish one might expect to see scrawled on a high school film report. It's not clever. It's not well-written. This person should not have a job.
7
Yes, granted Polanski did apparently drug & sodomize a 13 year old girl. So yeah, that makes him a pretty rotten guy. But, his pregnant wife WAS murdered by the Manson family, so let's not forget that.
I'm not saying it's an excuse, i'm just saying it ought to be taken into context.
8
I must apologize for this writer's review, as this is a very watchable movie, a thriller in true Polanski and the Hitchcock sense. Also may be an eye opener for some. See below.

May contain spoilers to the movie, “The Ghost Writer”

Some may believe Polanski’s movie "The Ghost Writer" bears no resemblance to reality, or his current situation.



In the movie two ghost writers, face the same corruption.

The first perishes under strange circumstances much as Polanski did in America due to Judicial Corruption at the Santa Monica Courthouse.

And just as there are two ghosts in the movie, so too are there two victims of Judicial corruption in reality.



The second victim suffers police brutality by undocumented White County of Los Angeles Sheriffs Deputies, for reporting Police cover up of her sexual assault complaint against a Santa Monica College photography teacher.



The same Judge for overseeing the police brutality in his courtroom was promoted to the California Court of Appeals on police brutality day, just as Jay S. Bybee who signed the Torture Memos for the Bush administration was promoted to the 9th Circuit Federal Appeal Court.



As Polanski plus another have been victimized by Judicial Misconduct in the same Santa Monica Courthouse, Polanski’s claim is substantiated because there is a Judicial double standard for sexual assault cases depending on who the perpetrator is:



Roman Polanski 



or 


A State employee, who then is assisted by corrupt police & the Court itself. 



The second victim sued in Federal District Court but got slowly tortured by Los Angeles County & Judge Jay S. Bybee's January 11th 2006 decision.

 Not sure if the prognosis is rosy?

Polanski’s movie "The Ghost Writer" warns viewers to not to seek truth, or expose political facts that Officials want covered up, because if you do, you may end up as a ghost.

~~~~~~~~
Dear POLANSKI APOLOGIST:
The above is not only steeped in conspiracy theory hocus pocus, but even ventures to take the focus off the real (reality? hello?) victim -- a 13 year old girl who was drugged, raped anally, orally, and missionary style and was later too scared to testify for herself (read: "blame the victim in Victimology Studies). Therefore, Polanski was able to plead down and only charged with having sex with a minor. She was not paid off handsomely (dirty gold-diggers) by Polanski to shut up - that happened years later.

Sex offenders AND/or their apologists are creepy. Do not believe a word they say. They are most excellent con artists, obviously. Masterful at deviating focus away from their sickness. Sex offender motto? Never get caught. Fortunately today, there are people with enough data working in the field of behavioral profiling that know exactly who is who. Scared?
9
People who believe in the honesty of the California Judicial system as far as sexual assault cases are creepy. People who believe there is no discrimination or exploitation of sexual assault cases are creepy. People who do not believe that Polanski has been exploited by the California Judical system and prosecutors are creepy.

People who believe that Santa Monica College & their Instructors don't sexually molest a student from behind in a class and get the police and Judge to cover up are creeps.

People who don't understand that Polanski has already served his sentence and was subjected to illegal coercion by the Santa Monica Judge and discrimination have their heads in the sand.

There are alot of problems in California, and Polanski is not one of them. Corruption is the problem and it is supported all the way up. It was Chinatown in 1930 and still is 80 years later.
10
The corrupt LA DA's office needs to finally own up to their foolishness and ineptitude in regards to Roman Polanski's case (and many other) cases such as the one above. The case was settled. The publicity-hungry judge was pressured and cajoled by a member of the DAs office to reject the settlement and impose a much harsher sentence. That former DA now claims he was lying about his conversations with the judge (uh, okay...). The case is tainted. It's over. All this is just more chest-thumping political theatrics. Why do we always have idiots for DAs in Los Angeles?
11
The corrupt LA DA's office needs to finally own up to their foolishness and ineptitude in regards to Roman Polanski's case (and many other) cases such as this one

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/judge-cooleys-retaliation-against-union-members-striking-and-rampant-.html

The case was settled. The publicity-hungry judge was pressured and cajoled by a member of the DAs office to reject the settlement and impose a much harsher sentence. That former DA now claims he was lying about his conversations with the judge (uh, okay...). The case is tainted. It's over. All this is just more chest-thumping political theatrics. Why do we always have idiots for DAs in Los Angeles?
12
Suffice to say, if you live in Los Angeles, Chinatown this is
13
I saw Ghost Writer this weekend, and it far exceeded my expectations. This is about as taut a political thriller as they come. It was a joy to see a director approach his material so effortlessly. Polanski really does make this sort of film look easy; the highest compliment I can pay is that, when it was finished, I could not believe that I had been in the theater for over 2 hours. A good thriller feels abbreviated no matter the length, and it passed the litmus. He's come back to this sort of film a few times in the past decades (Frantic, Death and the Maiden) and the results are, not surprisingly, always far better than, say, his shoddy attempts to mannered period pictures (Tess, Oliver Twist).

I loved the thematic allusions to his past work, particularly the Tenant and Chinatown. This may be his best film since his heyday in the 60s and 70s.
14
This is the worst movie review I've ever read. And the laziest.

High five, can't wait to read the next. You inspire me.

-
The Dude
15
And like someone else said, it wasn't a film review. He did not review the film. Is this the film section of the Portland mercury, or the masterbate section?

Does he get paid for this? Fire him, no excuses. 20,000 + people in portland, including high schoolers and middle schoolers, could have written this.


-The Pat
16
what soto said is good.
17
This is possibly the worst film review I have ever read. It is completely empty and has almost nothing to do with the film itself. Those with no interest in film should probably not be entrusted with critiquing it. The fact that a response in the comments section has more to say about the film than the critic is lamentable at best.
Apparently another hipster doofus trying to hone his critical thinking skills. Sorry, you picked the wrong movie and thereby exposed yourself as the washed up hack that you are; "Ghost Writer" is a work of art in storytelling, cinematography, and acting. It aptly portrays the futility of working against the powers that be in this global age and left me feeling both eerily hopeless and inspired by the work of Polanski. Not overdone, or opinionated as the "Green Zone" is sure to be. The only message seems to be that apathy is our one saving grace in a world beyond our control. Hard to believe that a hipster wouldn't eat this one up raw, but i guess that's the irony.
19
As so many people are saying this is the worst review they have ever read
Here is a good review of the movie from New York, with lots of details

By MANOHLA DARGIS
The darkly brooding sky that hangs over much of “The Ghost Writer,” the latest from Roman Polanski, suggests that all is grim and gray and perhaps even for naught. But this high-grade pulp entertainment is too delectably amusing and self-amused, and far too aware of its own outrageous conceits to sustain such a dolorous verdict. The world has gone mad of course — this is a Polanski film — so all we can do is puzzle through the madness, dodging the traps with our ironic detachment and tongue lightly in cheek.

The Ghost of the title, never named in the film, is played by Ewan McGregor at his ingénue best. A writer for hire — his oeuvre is summed up by the vulgar wit of his latest effort, about a magician, “I Came, I Sawed, I Conquered” — the Ghost is tapped for cleanup duties. The initial ghostwriter behind the unfinished memoirs of a former British prime minister, Adam Lang (a superb Pierce Brosnan), has washed up dead on an American beach. The publisher wants a completed book and presumptive best seller, and Lang, an increasingly divisive figure at home and abroad, needs the kind of tidying up that such a media event might provide. The Ghost, an agreeable, convenient blank slate (no family, no history), seems the man for the job.

And what nasty work it proves to be! Based on the novel “The Ghost” by Robert Harris, who shares screenwriting credit with Mr. Polanski, the film opens under a menacing cloak of darkness that rarely rises. An abandoned car in the first shot leads to the first ghostwriter’s beached body being lashed by ocean waters in Martha’s Vineyard, a macabre setup that in turn leads to the Ghost receiving a thrashing in London, as he’s insulted (by an editor who thinks he’s wrong for the job); bullied (by the publisher who wants a fast turnaround); and punched (by a mugger who snatches a manuscript, mistaking it for Lang’s). By the time the Ghost meets Lang, who’s holed up at Martha’s Vineyard, he is as jumpy as the rest of us. (The film was largely shot in Germany.)

Mr. Polanski is a master of menace and, working with a striking wintry palette that at times veers into the near-monochromatic — the blacks are strong and inky, the churning ocean the color of lead — he creates a wholly believable world rich in strange contradictions and ominous implications. Among the most initially confusing is Lang, a professional charmer whose beaming smiles, with their sinister undercurrent, and fits of rage convey depths that the Ghost soon begins to plumb, an endeavor that takes the shape of an investigation. This amateur sleuthing leads to unsurprising trouble, including with Lang’s wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams), a brainy beauty whose relationship with her husband holds its own secrets and is transparently meant to invoke that between Cherie Booth and Tony Blair.

The parallels with Mr. Blair and Lang spice up the story, especially as references to Iraq, torture and the Central Intelligence Agency are folded into the mix and placard-waving protesters gather outside Lang’s hideaway. Fingers are pointed, though sometimes it seems not only at Lang but also at Mr. Polanski, who is under house arrest in Switzerland awaiting word on whether he will be sent back to Los Angeles to face sentencing for having had sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. Certainly the shots of Lang’s detractors, with their furiously distorted faces and accusatory placards (“guilty,” “wanted”), gives the film an extra-cinematic tang, though as with so much here, it’s also evident that Mr. Polanski is having his fun.

And he’s delivering this pulpy fun at such a high level that “The Ghost Writer” is irresistible, no matter how obvious the twists. Everything — including Alexandre Desplat’s score, with its mocking, light notes and urgent rhythms suggestive of Bernard Herrmann — works to sustain a mood, establish an atmosphere and confirm an authorial intelligence that distinguishes this film from the chaff. Unlike many modern Hollywood and Hollywood-style thrillers, which seek to wrest tension from a frenzy of cutting and a confusion of camera angles, Mr. Polanski creates suspense inside the frame through dynamic angles and through the discrete, choreographed movements of the camera and actors. He makes especially effective use of the enormous windows in Lang’s house through which the sky and ocean beckon and threaten.

It’s easy to speculate that Mr. Polanski was attracted to the theme of rewriting one’s life history. Reading a work of art through the lens of biography is seductive, particularly when an artist ventures into the explicitly personal, as he did in “The Pianist,” his 2002 film about a musician who, like him, survived the Holocaust. But such interpretations can flatten poetry into prose and also serve as strategies to neuter artists, whose works of imagination are “revealed” as nothing more than banal facts. This isn’t to deny the personal in art, only an insistence on the elusiveness of creation. Mr. Polanski’s ventures into the horrific in films like “Repulsion” might have something to do with his history, but they are also a matter of affinities, inspirations, attitudes, competencies, tastes, pleasures.

In this respect “The Ghost Writer” seems to be as much about Mr. Polanski’s life as, well, that of Tony Blair, which only means that there are amusing points of convergence. Tracing the lines between fact and fiction makes for a dandy parlor game, one that Mr. Polanski obviously wants us to play, at least for a while, because such resonances have their rewards. They thicken the texture of the work, even if they don’t define it. Such thickening might seem especially critical with material as thin as “The Ghost Writer,” but these are the tools of a director working with every element at his disposal, including a colorful miscellany of emoting, popping, memorable faces (notably those of Kim Cattrall, Tom Wilkinson, Eli Wallach and David Rintoul).

It would be easy to overstate the appeal of “The Ghost Writer” just as, I imagine, it will be easy for some to dismiss it. But the pleasures of a well-directed movie should never be underestimated. The image of Mr. Brosnan abruptly leaning toward the camera like a man possessed is worth a dozen Oscar-nominated performances. And the way, when Lang chats with the Ghost — his arms and legs open, a drink in hand, as if he were hitting on a woman — shows how an actor and his director can sum up an entire personality with a single pose. Mr. Polanski’s work with his performers is consistently subtle even when the performances seem anything but, which is true of this very fine film from welcome start to finish.
20
Roger Ebert and A.O. Scott also wrote excellent reviews.
21
That was a "review"? OK Zac, you can go back to your baby crib. You "15 seconds of fame" are over now.
22
I have been looking forward to seeing this film for some time. Nothing but great reviews (aside from the silly one here)! So I have been checking movie showtimes for weeks. The website I use for this is Movietimes.com. No listings for Ghost Writer. None.
I have used that site for years and never experienced any inaccuracies. I went so far as to email Regal Cinemas and complain; why weren't they showing this top grossing film???
So today I buy an Oregonian and discover that Ghost Writer is playing in at least a dozen theaters in Portland!! I find another showtime site run by Google and sure enough, it's everywhere, and has been for some time. I am going this afternoon!
Beware of Movietimes.com. They are surely boycotting this movie, they have deleted all showtimes, all mention.
23
For more on Corruption in high Official places and Double Standard in Roman Polanski's case as far as Los Angeles Prosecutors.

See links below:

http://www.fulldisclosure.net/Programs/515.php
http://www.fulldisclosure.net/Programs/515-4.php

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