The Ghost Writer
- Title: The Ghost Writer
- IMDB: link
Historically not all of Roman Polanski’s choices have been good ones (and I’m not just talking about Pirates). Say what you want about the director’s personal life, the man knows how to tell a story and how to build and hold dramatic tension without relying on unnecessarily cheap plot twists.
Adapted from the Robert Harris novel The Ghost, The Ghost Writer begins with the death of a ghost writer working on former British Prime Minister Adam Lang’s (Pierce Brosnan) autobiography.
Into the fray steps the new Ghost (Ewan McGregor), never referred to by name, who soon has second thoughts about taking the job. Our new writer’s job is made more complicated by his subject being charged publicly with war crimes, a sneaking suspicion of other dark secrets hidden in the shadows, a media frenzy, and a growing paranoia of his over his safety.
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Imagine this: You go into a prestigious job interview for a position you’re not even sure you want only to find the entire building attacked by vampires from another dimension. That would suck, right? Bet your ass!
As far as I can tell, Pedro Almodóvar is the most well-known Spanish filmmaker, and has a shot at being the most well-known European one, too. It’s been a lonely three years since his last film, Volver crossed the Atlantic, but now we get Broken Embraces, another story of the consequences and rewards of love. Was it worth the wait? Of course it was.
An Education is based on the autobiographical memoir of 
Being a Harry Potter fan and a film snob is not easy. Though Chris Columbus’ films were decent, the only adaptation that really worked was 2004’s The Prisoner of Azkaban. With that single concession, we the faithful have just had to sit around and take it from Warner Bros. as they haphazardly adapted the books into competent but lacking films.