Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan star in this suspense thriller about a ghost writer for a former British prime minister, who takes up the gauntlet after the suspicious suicide of his predecessor.
The ghost writer (McGregor) is a mildly successful biographer in London. His agent manages to get him an interview for a job finishing the memoirs for ex-prime minister Adam Lang (Brosnan). After passing the interview, the writer is flown to a mysterious and isolated island in the USA, where Lang lives with a small team of guards and his wife Ruth (Olivia Williams). The writer quickly discovers that Lang’s residence on this island is a closely monitored, highly secured way of life, with the manuscript for the memoirs being kept locked away.
McGregor soon gets to work with Lang, who is a brusque, temperamental man but seems like an interesting fellow to write about. However, a political tornado is growing around Lang, as he is being accused of working with the Americans during illegal torturing and renditions of suspected terrorists during his term in office. As the character of Lang becomes a somewhat darker enigma, the ghost writer begins to worry less about the memoirs he is expected to write in just two weeks, and more about his own safety.
Failing to impress, this film, by renowned director Roman Polanski, creates a very suspenseful atmosphere, with some brilliant cinematography, but with very little conflict or drama. The storyline is particularly dull, the characters, whilst mildly intriguing, are never fully developed or explored, and the conclusion of the film was irritating and pointless.
Trying to follow in the suspenseful footsteps of a director like Hitchcock, the music and filming techniques were used to peak our interest, but instead of, like Hitchcock, offering us some melodramatic story that is utterly engaging, we are given a lukewarm plot and very little substance.
No comments:
Post a Comment