the ghost writer ***
moody and gripping political thriller, which ratchets up the tension and sense of unease expertly over the length of the picture. ewan mcgregor is excellent as the nameless ghost writer who is charming blank slate, while tom wilkinson and pierce brosnan inject more colour into the cast. the story is fairly conventional and simple, with a few really dumb moments that irritate me, but its success is in how polanski tells it; his control of the film's atmosphere is superb, with some gorgeous cinematography in there, and great attention is paid tot he details in every scene, which all serves to totally sell you on the characters, place and events despite some patchiness in the script. the film lacks subtlety in its political agenda, which is fine in theory as i don't mind very political films, but i dislike how blatant the blair resemblance of the portrayed prime minister is given the steps into deep fiction it takes as the plot unfolds, even though it makes the later revelations quite comic for followers of uk politics. it concludes with a great last shot.
