I was sitting on the edge of my seat during the whole movie as the plot got thicker and thicker. Adam Lange (Brosnan) is a former British Prime Minister who hires Ewan McGregor to finish ghost writing his memoirs. As the movie opens we see the first ghost writer's body wash up on the beach. Ewan is selected because he is politically stupid. After his initial meeting with a hiring group,(Jim Belushi) he is handed a manuscript to look at. On his way home, he is mugged and the manuscript stolen. He suspects it is because the robbers thought it was Adam Lange's memoirs.On his way to meet Lange, he sees on TV that Lange is being charged with war crimes for turning over suspected terrorists to the CIA for torture (Apparently only the US and Israel are allowed to do that under the UN charter). He finally meets Lange and his aides and wife (Ruth), only find out Ruth (Olivia Williams) dislikes Lange's aide (Kim Cattrall) and suspects they are having an affair. McGregor shifts gears from Ghostwriter to investigative journalist as he unravels a web of deceit and lies.The movie is long, but it held my interest all the way through.

I hesitated for long time to give it a chance. I discovered The Ghost Writer again on Netflix. I have to admit that it was better than I expected. It begins slow but steady interesting. Then it gets more and more into an intriguing story. Finally it ends with great surprises that I couldn't even imagine at the beginning of the movie. Ewan McGregory played his role perfectly. I liked the mysterious filming locations and the perfectly adapted music a la Hitchcock. Director Roman Polanski created a solid mystery thriller. Bravo. It deserves by far a good entertaining rate of 7/10.

Dear Roman Polanski, Ghost Writer is mostly a film of place for me. The locales and the visuals stood out for me more than anything else in this film. It superseded the film's politics and the wonderful actors. I cannot think of another film set on an island that has been shot so beautifully. Hitchcock's Birds comes to mind. But the rainy, sparsely populated places with beaches and beautiful pubs and houses in The Ghost Writer captured my imagination unlike any other film.Ewen Mcgregor must be one of the best actors of his generation - he is perfect as a man who serves the powers that be. Pierce Brosnan excels in a rare role of a square. Olivia Williams as Brosnan's vicious and controlling wife delivers a strong performance. Kim Cattrall as her sexual rival was easy on the eyes.The background score by Alexander complements the visuals perfectly. The rollicking title score sounds like a ferry crashing through the waves. I loved it. And loved your movie too.Best Regards, Pimpin.

Whatever one may think of Polanski, he can direct a fine thriller. Many of his movies have this quality - they don't seem to be part of a grand director's oeuvre, but are full, fine, successful projects. This is a taut, slightly spooky political thriller in which Ewan MacGregor plays a ghost writer - a replacement ghost writer, since the first guy mysteriously died - for a smooth British politician (Brosnan). There is nothing to complain about here - locations, performances, imagery, low key soundtrack - all of it is first rate. There are dashes of Hitchcock and classic mysteries. The ending is a little unsatisfying, but it has the right paranoid scope.