The Ghost Writer

The Ghost Writer directed by Roman Polanski starts out with the apparent suicide of a writer who was writing the autobiographical memoirs for a former British Prime Minister, played effectively by Pierce Brosnan. Right away with an indication from the tone of the score we know it probably wasn't a suicide and that the main character is going to spend a good part of the movie trying to figure out what happened to him. That main character is played by Ewan McGregor and he is hired to replace the dead writer to also "ghost" a book for the now troubled politician. I don't want to give too much away but it does build quite a lot of suspense as it goes along as our main character finds out more about what really happened and why. There is also a remarkably clever use of technology (encroaching into so many mainstream movies now as it is) to move the story along. Much more clever than when it was used in The Departed which in that film seemed intrusive and gimmicky. There is also an incredible extended shot of a note being passed around that reminded me of the best of Hitchcock or De Palma. Also, near the end something is revealed and Polanski doesn't dumb it down by showing flashback images of the movie to reveal to us the truth about what has just happened. I've seen that in so many movies before, like the audience isn't smart enough to figure it out. An excellent film and my pick for the best film of 2010.

9/10