Free YouTube Movie Reviews: The Ghostwriter (2010)
Since I have sworn-off all paid streaming services and been kicked off the ones for whom I was using someone else's password, I have started watching free movies on YouTube. There is a surprisingly good selection of feature films out there for free, including...
...The Ghost Writer (2010), directed by Roman Polanski and featuring a heavy-hitting cast led by Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, but rounded out by a platoon of recognizable supporting actors and actresses including Kim Cattrall, Jim Belushi, Timothy Hutton, Eli Wallach, and a bunch of other "hey, it's that guy" level stars such as Olivia Williams (Rushmore, The Sixth Sense), Jon Bernthal (one of the main guys from The Walking Dead) and Tom Wilkinson, who has excelled at playing rich, evasive, corrupt or depraved characters in bit parts for as long as I can remember.
Based upon a British novel called The Ghost, the plot on this one is pretty sound: when the former British Prime Minister's ghost writer turns up dead under mysterious circumstances, a new one -- played by Ewan McGregor -- is hired to complete the job. Traveling to Martha's Vineyard, Mass. where the former Prime Minister (Brosnan) is vacationing, The Ghost (as McGregor's character is called) starts to unravel the former Prime Minister's carefully hidden past. I loathe detailed plot synopses, so we'll just leave it at that.
Overall thoughts:
- For a pretty standard mystery/thriller type movie, the cinematography and direction are incredible. Somehow they manage to make every single minute of this film seem dark and foreboding, without seeming hammed up or overwrought. Even the mundane scenes are shot in such a way that shadows seem to surround the main character. You just never lose the sense that danger is around every corner.
- I wish I'd seen this film on the big screen because -- related to the above point -- the setting of this film is just fantastic. Since Polanski can't travel to the U.S., the film was shot in coastal Denmark and Germany, stand-ins for Martha's vineyard. There is always something cinematic about the beach in the winter. Furthermore, the house they used for the former Prime Minister's dwelling could not have been chosen better. It is almost a character of its own in this film.
- Big shout-out to Kim Cattrall for her performance in this film, even though she had to fake her way -- lightly -- through an English accent. Having not seen Cattrall since Sex and the City, it was a pleasant surprise to find her in a completely different type of role. Cattrall has always been great to look at on screen, but in this role she simply radiates with a kind of composed, yet animalistic sexuality and completely steals every scene she is in, just by standing there. It's also a pleasant reminder that she does have an acting range beyond her role as Samantha in Sex and the City.
- Not Ewan McGregor's or Pierce Brosnan's best roles, by any means, but they turn in solid performances being the pros that they are. Hey, every film can't be an Oscar Winner.
- The worst thing I can say about this movie is that it started to heat up just a bit too late and the resolution seemed maybe just a little bit forced; however, there is a big payoff in the end.
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