I can't quite believe the positivity of the reviews surrounding this film. I had high hopes following the initial scenes, in which we see the interview and recruitment of the ghost writer (Ewan McGregor) by the publishing and legal council employed by the former Prime Minister, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). We hear that Lang's previous 'ghost' died whilst working on his memoirs, and there is allusion to suspicious circumstances. Inside the office in which this interview takes place we are treated to thoughtful dialogue which is delivered well in some of the best acting in the entire film. From here on in it goes downhill. Unfortunately, Timothy Hutton (Lang's lawyer, Sidney Kroll), James Belushi (CEO of the publishing firm, John Maddox) and Jon Bernthol (Rick Ricardelli, the ghostwriter's agent) don't see much more screen action, and instead the bulk of the film's script is reserved for McGregor, Pierce Brosnan (Adam Lang), Olivia Williams (Ruth Lang) and Kim Cattrall (Amelia Bly, Adam's personal assistant), who all deliver mediocre performances which are not helped by a predictable and horribly unimaginative script. In fact, Kim Catterall is the worst of the bunch and looks horribly wooden, delivering her lines by rote and showing no more complexity in neither her acting talent nor her character than she does as her contradistinctive Sex in the City character, whose name I'm not even going to look up I care so little. Ewan is the best of the bunch but is nothing special, and certain lines are delivered as though read for the first time during a hastily put together rehearsal. He drags behind him Williams and Brosnan, who also deliver their lines with little imagination, clawing their way to the end of each scene, and not a second too soon for me either.
Roman Polanski wrote the script whilst under house arrest in Switzerland, his arrest being requested by the US government, who wanted to extradite him after he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13 year old girl (he was charged initially with rape) and then fled to avoid sentencing. His mind was obviously on other things at the time, because the story is rushed, held together by dialogue which, bad acting aside, is not believable and mostly serves only to reel off the information it wants us to know in order to carry the story along. The relationships between the characters are also unbelievable, and this becomes apparent early on as Ruth meets the ghost for the first time. She takes him for a walk on the beach and is immediately overly familiar, linking arms with him whilst she tells him about her relationship with her husband as well as her negative feelings towards his personal assistant. Again, we are just being fed information, at the expense of character development.
Their are also events in the film, however minor, that are questionable in their plausibility and again it stinks of a rushed job. A couple of quick examples: Following the assassination of Lang, the ghost is taken in for questioning by the Secret Service and as the key witness his passport is taken from him. Back at his room, a knock at the door reveals his agent with the ghost's passport in hand, telling him he is now free again to go where he pleases and that the Secret Service won't be bothering him again, explaining it away with a short boast about how lucky he is to have such a 'resourceful' agent. Really?? I think not. In another scene he takes the guest communal vehicle, which has not been used since the previous ghost writer, Mike, used it the day he was killed. He finds that the sat nav is still trying to take him somewhere, and realising that he can follow it to where Mike was going the day of his death, he lets it direct him. Now, we know that Mike was killed on his way back from wherever he went, so it is difficult to believe he made his return journey with the sat nav still on, repeatedly telling him to turn around (as it is doing to Ewan when he first sets off). That must really have annoyed him. No wonder it was reported he commited suicide.
It's so full of holes a child could have written it, and considering the old man has obviously been hanging around with kids far more than he should have I wouldn't fall off my seat if I found out that was the case. Apparently it was originally to star Nicholas Cage as the ghost writer, so although the script is terrible, the story is lame, the acting is amateurish and the casting is bad enough as it is, we can thank god for small mercies. It could have been a good film - Lang is a loose 'ghost' of Tony Blair, referenced by his diction on terrorism and the whole theme of his close relationship with the US, and according to the BBC Blair was the inspiration for Lang's character. This itself is appealing and I think potentially allowed for a film that could work on multiple levels and be both interesting and relevant. Unfortunately, it is a good idea ruined from all angles, and goes on the pile with the rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment