The Ghost (2010 film)
Encyclopedia
The Ghost Writer is a 2010 political thriller
film directed by Roman Polanski
. The film is an adaptation of the Robert Harris
novel, The Ghost
, with the screenplay written by Polanski and Harris. It stars Ewan McGregor
, Pierce Brosnan
, Kim Cattrall
and Olivia Williams
.
(Ewan McGregor
) agrees to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister
Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan
), his agent, Rick Ricardelli (Jon Bernthal
), assures him it is the opportunity of a lifetime. But the project seems doomed from the start, not least because his predecessor on the project, Mike McAra, Lang's long-term aide, died in an apparent accident. The ghostwriter flies out to work on the project, in the middle of winter, at an oceanfront house in the fictional American village of Old Haven (an allusion to Vineyard Haven) on Martha's Vineyard
. But the day he arrives, a former British foreign minister named Richard Rycart (Robert Pugh
) accuses Lang of authorizing the illegal seizure
of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture
by the CIA
, a possible war crime
. Lang faces the threat of prosecution by the International Criminal Court
, unless he stays in the U.S. or goes to another country that does not recognize the court's jurisdiction.
The controversy brings reporters and protesters swarming to the security perimeter of the island home where Lang is staying with his wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams
), and his personal assistant (and mistress), Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall
). As the ghostwriter works, he uncovers clues suggesting his predecessor may have stumbled on a dark secret concerning Lang. During Lang's absence, the neglected and possibly vengeful Ruth sleeps with the writer. The writer meets an old man (Eli Wallach
) living nearby, who tells him that there is no possible way the current could have taken the body of the dead writer from the ferry where he disappeared to the beach location where it was discovered. The old man also reveals that a neighbor woman saw flashlights on the beach the night the body was discovered, but later fell down her stairs and went into a coma
.
The next morning, the ghostwriter follows the GPS instructions in the car of the previous writer, which leads him to the estate of Professor Paul Emmett (Tom Wilkinson
), who also appears in college photographs with Lang which had been left behind by the previous ghost-writer. The ghostwriter can tell that Emmett is hiding something. As the writer leaves Emmett's estate, he is followed by a car, but eludes it. The writer boards the ferry, but then flees the boat as it departs as he sees the car that had followed him drive aboard. He decides to spend the night on the mainland, and stays in a small motel and while there, finds information on the internet that points to Paul Emmett as a CIA agent.
The writer then dials Rycart, whose phone number had been among the effects of his predecessor, and who tells him that the previous writer had confided to him that in case anything happened to him, the truth about Lang was written in the beginning of the book. The men cannot, however, find anything in the manuscript's early pages. Then Lang calls and the writer is told by Rycart to go with Lang. The writer warns that Lang will be able to avoid Rycart no matter what he does. On the plane, the writer accuses Lang of being a CIA agent recruited by Emmett, but Lang derides his suggestion. The writer joins Lang's party on his private plane for the short return trip to the island.
Upon departing the aircraft, Lang is assassinated
by an anti-war
protestor who had lost a son while Lang was the British PM. The assassin is in turn shot by police. The writer is questioned and U.S. authorities take his passport so that he has to stay and provide information. Despite Lang's death, the ghostwriter is asked to complete the book for posthumous publication.
During the launch party for the book, while talking to Amelia, she tells him by accident that the manuscript was ordered to be accessed by only a few people, as the "beginnings" contained evidence that threatened national security and Amelia also tells him that Paul Emmett was Ruth's tutor when she was a Fulbright scholar
. He realizes that the clues were hidden in the original manuscript at the beginning of each chapter. He underlines the words at the beginning of each chapter and reveals the message, "Lang's wife Ruth was recruited as a CIA agent by Professor Paul Emmett of Harvard University." Ruth Lang has shaped Lang's every political decision to benefit the United States
, as directed by the CIA. The writer passes a note to Ruth of his discovery and as Ruth unfolds the note, she is devastated to read the text. She sees the ghostwriter raising his glass, as if making a toast to her and leaving the party with the original manuscript in hand and as she starts following she is stopped by Emmet. As the ghostwriter crosses the street off-camera, a car accelerates in his direction, and sound effects and flying papers indicate that he has been hit.
Tony Blair
. The BBC
notes that the character "was inspired by Tony Blair," and that "the ghost of Tony Blair ... haunts the fictional Mr Lang, with references to Iraq
, the 'war on terror
', and a much too cosy relationship with the United States."
The actors who play Foreign Secretary Richard Rycart and the US Secretary of State physically resemble their real-life counterparts, Robin Cook
and Condoleezza Rice
, respectively. Like Rycart, Cook had differences with the direction of the British Prime Minister in some foreign policy matters. The character of the old man living on Martha's Vineyard is an allusion to Robert McNamara
.
. The film, to be produced by Summit Entertainment
, was announced at the Cannes Film Festival
in 2007 as potentially the most expensive European film ever made, but was cancelled as a result of the looming actors' strike that autumn.
Polanski and Harris then turned to Harris' current bestseller, The Ghost
. They co-wrote a script and Polanski announced filming for early 2008, with Nicolas Cage
, Pierce Brosnan
, Tilda Swinton
, and Kim Cattrall
starring. The film was then postponed by a year, with Ewan McGregor
and Olivia Williams
replacing Cage and Swinton, respectively.
The film began production in February 2009 in Germany
, at the Babelsberg Studios
in Potsdam
. Germany stood in for London
and Martha's Vineyard
due to Polanski's inability to legally travel to those places. The majority of exteriors, set on Martha's Vineyard, were shot on the island of Sylt
in the North Sea, and on the ferry MS SyltExpress. The exterior set of the house where much of the film takes place, however, was built on the island of Usedom
, in the Baltic Sea. Exteriors and interiors set at a publishing house in London were shot in downtown Berlin
, while Strausberg Airport near Berlin stood in for the Vineyard airport. A few brief exterior shots for driving scenes were shot by a second unit in Massachusetts, without Polanski or the actors.
On his way to the Zurich Film Festival
, Polanski was arrested by Swiss police
in September 2009. Due to Polanski's arrest, post-production was briefly put on hold, but he resumed and completed work from house arrest at his Swiss villa. He was unable to participate in the film's world premiere at the Berlinale festival on February 12, 2010.
on February 12, 2010. Summit Entertainment
released the home video version on August 3, 2010, on a special "single-disc DVD/Blu-ray combo."
reported that 84% of critics gave positive reviews based on a sample of 163 reviews with an average rating of 7.4/10. Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, gave the film an overall approval rating of seventy-five percent based on twenty-four reviews. Its consensus notes that, "While it may lack the revelatory punch of Polanski's finest films, Ghost Writer benefits from stylish direction, a tense screenplay, and a strong central performance from Ewan McGregor." Another review aggregator, Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized rating
from 0 to 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average rating of seventy-eight percent based on twenty-eight reviews. For Andrew Sarris
the film "constitutes a miracle of artistic and psychological resilience." Roger Ebert
gave the film four stars and declared: "This movie is the work of a man who knows how to direct a thriller."
Journalist/blogger William Bradley has dubbed it "one of the best films I've seen in recent years" in a review for The Huffington Post
that dealt with the film's artistic and political dimensions.
Writing for LAS Magazine
, Theon Weber gave the film a 6.8/10 rating and called it "a thriller with topical ambitions; it takes place in a jittery, bomb-fearing Britain and America, often in airports or official buildings, where the weary rituals of security screenings refuse to let the characters or the audience relax."
s John Rentoul, who describes himself as an "ultra Blairite
with a slavish admiration for Tony," and the conservative website Pajamas Media
's John Rosenthal, who both pointed out that the winner of Berlin's Silver Bear received a large amount of financial support from the German federal government. Rentoul describes the film as "propaganda" and a "Blair hating movie" and launched a scathing attack on Polanski.
They failed to point out, however, that most major films produced in Germany receive a grant from the German Federal Film Fund, which does not need to be repaid (DFFF). The Elfte Babelsberg Film GmbH, for example, received a grant of 3.5 million euro
s for producing the film. Given that other films may receive German government funding, more clarification about this practice can be found as elaborated by John Rosenthal.
Political thriller
A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle. They usually involve various extra-legal plots, designed to give political power to someone, while his opponents try to stop him. They can involve national or international political scenarios....
film directed by Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
. The film is an adaptation of the Robert Harris
Robert Harris (novelist)
Robert Dennis Harris is an English novelist. He is a former journalist and BBC television reporter.-Early life:Born in Nottingham, Harris spent his childhood in a small rented house on a Nottingham council estate. His ambition to become a writer arose at an early age, from visits to the local...
novel, The Ghost
The Ghost (novel)
The Ghost is a contemporary political thriller by the best-selling English novelist and journalist Robert Harris.In 2007 British prime minister Tony Blair resigned. Harris, a former Fleet Street political editor, dropped his other work to write the book...
, with the screenplay written by Polanski and Harris. It stars Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
, Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
, Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
and Olivia Williams
Olivia Williams
Olivia Haigh Williams is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films and television series.-Early life:Williams was born in Camden Town, London, England...
.
Plot
When a successful British ghostwriterGhostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
(Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
) agrees to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
), his agent, Rick Ricardelli (Jon Bernthal
Jon Bernthal
Jonathan E. "Jon" Bernthal is an American actor, best known for his role on the AMC television series The Walking Dead.-Early life:...
), assures him it is the opportunity of a lifetime. But the project seems doomed from the start, not least because his predecessor on the project, Mike McAra, Lang's long-term aide, died in an apparent accident. The ghostwriter flies out to work on the project, in the middle of winter, at an oceanfront house in the fictional American village of Old Haven (an allusion to Vineyard Haven) on Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
. But the day he arrives, a former British foreign minister named Richard Rycart (Robert Pugh
Robert Pugh
Robert Pugh is a Welsh film and television actor.Pugh was born in Cilfynydd and graduated from Rose Bruford College in 1976. In 2007, he co-starred alongside Genevieve O'Reilly and Geraldine James in ITV1 drama The Time of Your Life, where he played a parent whose 36-year-old daughter was...
) accuses Lang of authorizing the illegal seizure
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
by the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, a possible war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
. Lang faces the threat of prosecution by the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
, unless he stays in the U.S. or goes to another country that does not recognize the court's jurisdiction.
The controversy brings reporters and protesters swarming to the security perimeter of the island home where Lang is staying with his wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams
Olivia Williams
Olivia Haigh Williams is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films and television series.-Early life:Williams was born in Camden Town, London, England...
), and his personal assistant (and mistress), Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
). As the ghostwriter works, he uncovers clues suggesting his predecessor may have stumbled on a dark secret concerning Lang. During Lang's absence, the neglected and possibly vengeful Ruth sleeps with the writer. The writer meets an old man (Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
) living nearby, who tells him that there is no possible way the current could have taken the body of the dead writer from the ferry where he disappeared to the beach location where it was discovered. The old man also reveals that a neighbor woman saw flashlights on the beach the night the body was discovered, but later fell down her stairs and went into a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
.
The next morning, the ghostwriter follows the GPS instructions in the car of the previous writer, which leads him to the estate of Professor Paul Emmett (Tom Wilkinson
Tom Wilkinson
Thomas Geoffrey "Tom" Wilkinson, OBE is a British actor. He has twice been nominated for an Academy Award for his roles in In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton...
), who also appears in college photographs with Lang which had been left behind by the previous ghost-writer. The ghostwriter can tell that Emmett is hiding something. As the writer leaves Emmett's estate, he is followed by a car, but eludes it. The writer boards the ferry, but then flees the boat as it departs as he sees the car that had followed him drive aboard. He decides to spend the night on the mainland, and stays in a small motel and while there, finds information on the internet that points to Paul Emmett as a CIA agent.
The writer then dials Rycart, whose phone number had been among the effects of his predecessor, and who tells him that the previous writer had confided to him that in case anything happened to him, the truth about Lang was written in the beginning of the book. The men cannot, however, find anything in the manuscript's early pages. Then Lang calls and the writer is told by Rycart to go with Lang. The writer warns that Lang will be able to avoid Rycart no matter what he does. On the plane, the writer accuses Lang of being a CIA agent recruited by Emmett, but Lang derides his suggestion. The writer joins Lang's party on his private plane for the short return trip to the island.
Upon departing the aircraft, Lang is assassinated
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
by an anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
protestor who had lost a son while Lang was the British PM. The assassin is in turn shot by police. The writer is questioned and U.S. authorities take his passport so that he has to stay and provide information. Despite Lang's death, the ghostwriter is asked to complete the book for posthumous publication.
During the launch party for the book, while talking to Amelia, she tells him by accident that the manuscript was ordered to be accessed by only a few people, as the "beginnings" contained evidence that threatened national security and Amelia also tells him that Paul Emmett was Ruth's tutor when she was a Fulbright scholar
Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...
. He realizes that the clues were hidden in the original manuscript at the beginning of each chapter. He underlines the words at the beginning of each chapter and reveals the message, "Lang's wife Ruth was recruited as a CIA agent by Professor Paul Emmett of Harvard University." Ruth Lang has shaped Lang's every political decision to benefit the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as directed by the CIA. The writer passes a note to Ruth of his discovery and as Ruth unfolds the note, she is devastated to read the text. She sees the ghostwriter raising his glass, as if making a toast to her and leaving the party with the original manuscript in hand and as she starts following she is stopped by Emmet. As the ghostwriter crosses the street off-camera, a car accelerates in his direction, and sound effects and flying papers indicate that he has been hit.
Allusion to Tony Blair
As in the novel, the character of Adam Lang is a veiled portrait of former British Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
notes that the character "was inspired by Tony Blair," and that "the ghost of Tony Blair ... haunts the fictional Mr Lang, with references to Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
, the 'war on terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
', and a much too cosy relationship with the United States."
The actors who play Foreign Secretary Richard Rycart and the US Secretary of State physically resemble their real-life counterparts, Robin Cook
Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and notably served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001....
and Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, respectively. Like Rycart, Cook had differences with the direction of the British Prime Minister in some foreign policy matters. The character of the old man living on Martha's Vineyard is an allusion to Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...
.
Cast
- Ewan McGregorEwan McGregorEwan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
as the unnamed Ghost Writer - Pierce BrosnanPierce BrosnanPierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
as Adam Lang, a former British Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and... - Olivia WilliamsOlivia WilliamsOlivia Haigh Williams is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films and television series.-Early life:Williams was born in Camden Town, London, England...
as Ruth Lang, Adam's wife - Kim CattrallKim CattrallKim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
as Amelia Bly, Adam's personal assistant - Timothy HuttonTimothy HuttonTimothy Tarquin Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People . He currently stars as Nathan "Nate" Ford on the TNT series Leverage.-Early life:Timothy...
as Sidney Kroll, Lang's American lawyer - Tom WilkinsonTom WilkinsonThomas Geoffrey "Tom" Wilkinson, OBE is a British actor. He has twice been nominated for an Academy Award for his roles in In the Bedroom and Michael Clayton...
as Paul Emmett, Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Law SchoolHarvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
professor and suspected CIACentral Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
agent - Jon BernthalJon BernthalJonathan E. "Jon" Bernthal is an American actor, best known for his role on the AMC television series The Walking Dead.-Early life:...
as Rick Ricardelli, the ghostwriter's agent - James BelushiJames BelushiJames Adam "Jim" Belushi is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is the younger brother of comic actor John Belushi.-Early life:Belushi was born in Chicago...
as John Maddox, the CEO of the publishing firm publishing Lang's memoirs - Robert PughRobert PughRobert Pugh is a Welsh film and television actor.Pugh was born in Cilfynydd and graduated from Rose Bruford College in 1976. In 2007, he co-starred alongside Genevieve O'Reilly and Geraldine James in ITV1 drama The Time of Your Life, where he played a parent whose 36-year-old daughter was...
as Richard Rycart, former British foreign secretarySecretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth AffairsThe Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...
and UN envoy - Tim PreeceTim PreeceTim Preece is an English actor, prominent in 1970s television.He played the politically correct Tom Patterson in two series of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin and also had a role in Doctor Who in 1973...
as Roy - David RintoulDavid RintoulDavid Rintoul is a stage and television actor.Rintoul was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied at Edinburgh University and won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London....
as The Stranger - Eli WallachEli WallachEli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
as The Old Man at the Vineyard
Production
Polanski had originally teamed with Robert Harris for a film of Harris's novel PompeiiPompeii (novel)
Pompeii is a novel by author and journalist Robert Harris published by Random House in 2003. It is a blend of fictional characters with the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, 79 that overwhelmed Pompeii and its surrounding towns. Pompeii is especially notable for the author's...
. The film, to be produced by Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment LLC is an independent film studio headquartered in Santa Monica, California with international offices in London.-History:...
, was announced at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in 2007 as potentially the most expensive European film ever made, but was cancelled as a result of the looming actors' strike that autumn.
Polanski and Harris then turned to Harris' current bestseller, The Ghost
The Ghost (novel)
The Ghost is a contemporary political thriller by the best-selling English novelist and journalist Robert Harris.In 2007 British prime minister Tony Blair resigned. Harris, a former Fleet Street political editor, dropped his other work to write the book...
. They co-wrote a script and Polanski announced filming for early 2008, with Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
, Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmentalist. After leaving school at 16, Brosnan began training in commercial illustration, but trained at the Drama Centre in London for three years...
, Tilda Swinton
Tilda Swinton
Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
, and Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
starring. The film was then postponed by a year, with Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
and Olivia Williams
Olivia Williams
Olivia Haigh Williams is an English film, stage and television actress who has appeared in British and American films and television series.-Early life:Williams was born in Camden Town, London, England...
replacing Cage and Swinton, respectively.
The film began production in February 2009 in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, at the Babelsberg Studios
Babelsberg Studios
The Studio Babelsberg, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Founded in 1912, it covers an area of about . Hundreds of films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel were filmed there...
in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
. Germany stood in for London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
due to Polanski's inability to legally travel to those places. The majority of exteriors, set on Martha's Vineyard, were shot on the island of Sylt
Sylt
Sylt is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Frisia...
in the North Sea, and on the ferry MS SyltExpress. The exterior set of the house where much of the film takes place, however, was built on the island of Usedom
Usedom
Usedom is a Baltic Sea island on the border between Germany and Poland. It is situated north of the Szczecin Lagoon estuary of the River Oder in Pomerania...
, in the Baltic Sea. Exteriors and interiors set at a publishing house in London were shot in downtown Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, while Strausberg Airport near Berlin stood in for the Vineyard airport. A few brief exterior shots for driving scenes were shot by a second unit in Massachusetts, without Polanski or the actors.
On his way to the Zurich Film Festival
Zurich Film Festival
The Zurich Film Festival ' is an important international film festival, held annually in Zurich, Switzerland. A stated objective of the festival is to discover and support young, aspiring filmmakers and to offer the industry, audiences, the press and a broader public an exciting cinema experience...
, Polanski was arrested by Swiss police
Roman Polanski sexual abuse case
In March 1977, film director Roman Polanski was arrested and charged with a number of offenses against Samantha Geimer, a 13-year-old girl – rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor...
in September 2009. Due to Polanski's arrest, post-production was briefly put on hold, but he resumed and completed work from house arrest at his Swiss villa. He was unable to participate in the film's world premiere at the Berlinale festival on February 12, 2010.
Release
The film premiered at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival60th Berlin International Film Festival
The 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 11 to February 21, 2010, with Werner Herzog as President of the Jury. The opening film of the festival was Chinese director Wang Quan'an's romantic drama Apart Together, in competition, while the closing film is Japanese...
on February 12, 2010. Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment LLC is an independent film studio headquartered in Santa Monica, California with international offices in London.-History:...
released the home video version on August 3, 2010, on a special "single-disc DVD/Blu-ray combo."
Critical reception
The film has received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 84% of critics gave positive reviews based on a sample of 163 reviews with an average rating of 7.4/10. Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, gave the film an overall approval rating of seventy-five percent based on twenty-four reviews. Its consensus notes that, "While it may lack the revelatory punch of Polanski's finest films, Ghost Writer benefits from stylish direction, a tense screenplay, and a strong central performance from Ewan McGregor." Another review aggregator, Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized rating
Normalization (statistics)
In one usage in statistics, normalization is the process of isolating statistical error in repeated measured data. A normalization is sometimes based on a property...
from 0 to 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average rating of seventy-eight percent based on twenty-eight reviews. For Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
the film "constitutes a miracle of artistic and psychological resilience." Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film four stars and declared: "This movie is the work of a man who knows how to direct a thriller."
Journalist/blogger William Bradley has dubbed it "one of the best films I've seen in recent years" in a review for The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
that dealt with the film's artistic and political dimensions.
Writing for LAS Magazine
LAS Magazine
LAS Magazine, also known as Lost At Sea or LostAtSea.net, is a daily online magazine founded in 1998 by Eric J Herboth. An online social group for the magazine list it in the "Entertainment & Arts - Online Media" category with a description of "Art. Bike. Music. Media. Literature. Photography....
, Theon Weber gave the film a 6.8/10 rating and called it "a thriller with topical ambitions; it takes place in a jittery, bomb-fearing Britain and America, often in airports or official buildings, where the weary rituals of security screenings refuse to let the characters or the audience relax."
Funding and political controversy
A sour note came from The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
s John Rentoul, who describes himself as an "ultra Blairite
Blairite
In British politics, the term Blairism refers to the political ideology of former leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who left both positions in 2007 to become Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East...
with a slavish admiration for Tony," and the conservative website Pajamas Media
Pajamas Media
PJ Media is a media company that uses the Internet to present and comment on the news.Founded in 2004 by a network primarily, but not exclusively, made up of conservatives and libertarians led by mystery writer, screenwriter, and blogger Roger L...
's John Rosenthal, who both pointed out that the winner of Berlin's Silver Bear received a large amount of financial support from the German federal government. Rentoul describes the film as "propaganda" and a "Blair hating movie" and launched a scathing attack on Polanski.
They failed to point out, however, that most major films produced in Germany receive a grant from the German Federal Film Fund, which does not need to be repaid (DFFF). The Elfte Babelsberg Film GmbH, for example, received a grant of 3.5 million euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
s for producing the film. Given that other films may receive German government funding, more clarification about this practice can be found as elaborated by John Rosenthal.
Awards
See also
- 2010 in film2010 in filmThe year 2010 saw many new films released worldwide. 2010 saw a dramatic increase and prominence in the use of 3D-technology in filmmaking and film releases after the success of Avatar in the format, with releases such as Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans, Jackass 3D, all animated films and...
- British films of 2010British films of 2010A list of British films released in 2010.-External links:* at the Internet Movie Database...
- List of films set in London
- List of films set in New England
- List of thriller films
- Roman de GareRoman de GareCrossed Tracks is a 2007 French film directed by Claude Lelouch. The film follows a novelist, her ghost writer, and a wayward young woman as a chance encounter at a rest stop interrupts the delicate balance of their lives. French actor Dominique Pinon received wide praise for his rare turn as the...
(France, 2006), by Claude Lelouch (who appears as Hervé Picard), also about a ghost writer.
External links
- theghostwriter-movie.com, film's official website