Everyone has a film they like more than anyone else they know. Ask people and I guarantee the answer will be interesting, and say a lot about that person. If you ask me, the answer is easy: The Ghost (Writer).
(2010, Dir. Roman Polanski, Wrs. Robert Harris & Roman Polanski, based on the book The Ghost by Robert Harris). (Also, I’m going to call it The Ghost because that’s what it is called in the UK [even if the end credits still say The Ghost Writer], and it’s the name of the book. And… it’s a better title) That’s enough brackets for now.
The wonderfully pithy IMDb plot summary is:
A ghost writer, hired to complete the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister, uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.
And you really don’t need to know more about the plot than that (and shouldn’t before you watch it, but hey, the trailer is below).
Now, you may claim that me loving this film is not controversial. After all, Roger Ebert loved it, and it has an 84% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But ask any average person what they think of the film and they will tell you it is “fine” (actually, most of them will say they haven’t seen it, or even heard of it). Ask me what I think of it, and I’ll tell you I bloody love it. And this isn’t an article about how it’s secretly a masterpiece (I suspect it probably isn’t), but I can’t be objective in that way. Because I really love it. I’ve watched it at least twenty times, and I’ll keep watching it. But why? I have no idea, let’s try and figure it out.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way…
The Cast/The Characters
Ewan McGregor is great in the lead. I’m a big fan of his. Even when his performance is awful (Star Wars), he’s still likeable. Even when he’s evil. Perhaps because he looks like a real human, never a god. He reminds me of Michael Caine in that way. (Apparently Nicolas Cage was attached to this part originally, what an awful mistake that would have been). I’m also very glad that many critics praised his performance, because it’s hardly showy. It’s an everyman performance, playing a character who is deliberately forgettable and frequently unnoticed, but one with an inner life, and who runs a range from smart to ignorant and back, pervy to sweet, fearless to terrified, morally bankrupt to idealistic. And his character goes unnamed, as he does in the book, as ghost writers are, and is simply credited as “The Ghost”. Now that’s a classy touch!
I love Pierce Brosnan, I’ve always thought he’s magnetic on screen, even if he has a slim range (yes, I said it!). And as the Tony Blair-alike, Adam Lang, he manages to run the gamut from shrewd to foolish, charming to pompous, sinister to naive, and powerful to irrelevant. Writing this, I’m already beginning to realise that these characters have far more shades to them than in most films, even great ones. Every character has an area of strength and an area of weakness, and as the sands shift their status shifts with them.
To say much about Olivia Williams’ performance as Ruth Lang would mean straying into spoiler territory (even saying that is spoilerific). Tilda Swinton was originally attached to this role and it’s a real credit to Williams that people don’t lament her departure. Williams is great, and generally an underrated actress. It’s a real shame this performance didn’t to lead to larger roles for her. Most people probably still know her as the bridesmaid Joey sleeps with in London (in Friends). Ruth is a fascinatingly complex character, and the person you’re left thinking about whilst the credits roll.
It’s universally accepted that Kim Cattrall gives the worst performance in the film. I would argue that this is because she is simply fine, whereas everyone else is great (like Katie Holmes in Batman Begins). Also, she’s given the most underwritten role (like Katie Holmes), and is the only character who appears to have no hidden depths (perhaps that’s the point?). Also, Cattrall feels miscast, the main purpose of casting her seems to be to make her character someone we could believe would be an attractive prospect for an affair, but this is somewhat undermined by the fact that Williams is far sexier as Ruth.
Also, there’s Tom Wilkinson. I don’t need to convince anyone that he’s a great actor, but his first scene in the film is a masterclass in subtext and disguised malice. The second he looks at Ewan McGregor you fear for his life…
I will say no more about him though, for fear of spoilers. Fair to say, I’ve never seen him give a bad performance (unless you count Batman Begins, where he’s miscast).
Also, a shout out to the rest of the supporting cast; including Timothy Hutton, Jim Belushi, a pre-fame Jon Bernthal; all playing one-note (barely more than one-scene) characters, but giving them something more than that. And the absolutely, positively, bona fide legend that is Eli Wallach, who shows up for one scene to play “Old Man”.
And I also want to pay special attention to Robert Pugh, who gives a wonderfully shrewd performance as an old-friend-turned-enemy of Adam Lang. One who would whisper his way into the mind of our hero. I’ve become a big fan of Pugh based on his performance in this, and he deserves far more than the smattering of roles he gets.
Context
I won’t say much, but I will say that I have always found the transformation and evolution of the public perception of Tony Blair to be fascinating. From someone almost-universally loved, to someone almost-universally reviled, and (hopefully) to someone with a more nuanced reputation than either of those extremes.
The film exaggerates the elements people dislike most about Blair: wars in the Middle East, closeness to the American president, his apparent two-facedness and the feeling of performance people sensed in his behaviour. It asks the question: What if everything you were afraid of about Blair was true, only it was a hundred times worse?
Hitchcock
People overuse the word “Hitchcockian” to the point where it has little meaning. But I would argue that The Ghost is genuinely Hitchcockian in three important ways: it follows an everyman hero thrust into an unusual life-or-death situation (The 39 Steps, North by Northwest, etc.); it uses humour to diffuse tension (same again); and much of the film is about what is unsaid. To paraphrase Hitchcock, “most films are photographs of people talking, mine are photographs of people thinking”. This is the true spirit of Hitchcock, not the Hitchcock pastiche of De Palma (yes, I went there!).
Also, Alexandre Desplat’s score is the most Bernard Herrmann-esque thing I’ve heard in a thriller for a long time, all sweeping strings and low horns, none of the grinding, groaning, moaning scores that are de rigueur in thrillers right now. The Ghost score is one of the few I write my books to (when I feel I need something to get me in the headspace).
The Writing
Harris’s characters are layered and complex, we’ve established that. There is also a vein of dry humour that runs through the dialogue:
Cattrall — “Are you ill?”
McGregor — “No, I’m aging. This place is Shangri-La in reverse.”
This makes his characters feel intelligent (sharp tongues suggest sharp minds) which makes everyone more dangerous.
And more generally, Harris and Polanski do something that I love (also seen in Chinatown) which is to suggest that our hero has only uncovered a tiny portion of a much larger conspiracy; something that makes it all the more terrifying. This is a story decision, and one that comes from the book. They also (with the exception of the most major twist) refuse to have characters explain the solution to every mystery, instead you have to come to your own conclusions based on what you learn (and some questions you’ll never be able to answer for sure). This uncertainty is what makes it so re-watchable. Perhaps it’s ironic, but the most satisfying and interesting mysteries are often the ones that explain more than 50% of their secrets, but not 100%.
The Direction
Well, this could be an awkward conversation, but let’s admit it: Polanski is a great director of cinema. In fact, much of the praise this film gets focuses on the assuredness with which the film is made: Polanski demonstrating his command of his craft. In fact, The Ghost feels like a functional piece of furniture made by a master craftsman. For me, this film looks and feels like a David Fincher film that didn’t suck all the life out of the performances (I went there too!).
There is a simple shot that I adore: Ewan McGregor climbs into a car, suitcase in hand. The camera is positioned from inside the car toward the driver’s door, occupying the space of the passenger seat; as he pushes his suitcase into the car to place it on the passenger seat, the camera neatly tracks back to make the space, keeping McGregor and his suitcase the same distance from the lens during the move. (This is the sort of subtle work that, in fairness, Fincher does all the time, except he forces his actors to move in time with the camera in every single shot!)
There is a more widely celebrated shot in the final scene that follows a note being passed from person to person and really is as good as Hitchcock at his best, but don’t look it up if you haven’t seen the film because it contains the single biggest spoiler.
These gliding shots, the shadowy-yet-smooth lighting, the subtle performances, and Desplat’s tinkling score all contribute to a creeping dread that rises in our throats as it does in our hero’s, building through the story. Every element feels finely tuned, subtle, just enough, never overplayed, and it’s perhaps for this reason that so many people would call it “fine”. The film has the confidence to take it’s time, watch the opening two minutes below:
Now watch this later scene where Ewan McGregor is in danger of repeating the “accident” we saw the aftermath of in that opening (the “accident” that lead to his predecessor’s untimely demise):
If you’re paying half-attention to it, if you’re watching it on your phone or tablet, or in chunks, then it will come off as fine. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing special about it either. Its greatest strength (subtlety) can also be its greatest weakness with some audiences. Without meaning to sound wanky, subtlety is the main reason you should make time to watch a film on a big screen, in one sitting, with the sound turned up.
Maybe it’s me
None of what I’ve said has probably sold the film to you. I wouldn’t be surprised. After all, that’s why it’s the film I like more than anyone else. Perhaps it just contains so many elements I love…
Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Tom Wilkinson, Robert Pugh, Eli Wallach, Tony Blair, Robert Harris (read Fatherland and Archangel if you haven’t), an unnamed protagonist (like in Rebecca), a protagonist stepping into the shoes of a deceased predecessor (like in Rebecca!), politics, moral quandaries, monocular first-person perspective, barren wind-chafed locations, the feeling of being trapped in a house of secrets (Rebecca!!!), the Hitchcock influence
But still I would urge you to give the film a try. One day I may find someone who loves it as much as I do, and then we can have a proper discussion about it (and about that ending! and the original ending of the script, which I prefer). For now, all I know is I’m going to keep watching it.
So if you’ve seen The Ghost, tweet me @tjtrott to let me know, and if you haven’t, let me know which film you like more than anyone else!
