The Ghost Writer

Not to be confused with Ghost Rider, which is a crappy superhero movie starring Nicholas Cage and sounds pretty much exactly the same when you say it out loud.

Saturday was the last day of my spring break in the sense that it's the day I moved back in to college.  Sunday sort of counts, but Sunday is a school night, plus I had to work all afternoon.  So Saturday was the last "real" day of my spring break.  Coincidentally, it was also the first day of my friend Joey's break, and the only day he was going to be both free and in Minnesota.  It was pretty much a given that we'd have to hang out.

Plans weren't really made.  We knew eating somewhere nice was a on the agenda, and we knew one of us would have to wrangle up a car.  Beyond that, we didn't have much idea of what we'd end up doing.  So on the way up to dinner, Joey asked if I'd ever gotten around to seeing Hot Tub Time Machine.

(Damnit Danl)

After a delicious meal at Taste of Thailand in Apple Valley, we drove over to Lakeville to see what was showing.  This was the first time I can remember just showing up at a theater and then deciding what to see when I got there.  It's a much different experience, but one that I like.  It's really just giving yourself over to the idea that you're going for the experience of going to a movie rather than going to see anything in particular.  There's an added mini-game of trying to remember what all the movies on the marquee are about and deciding how long you're willing to wait to see something.  I quite enjoyed it.

We weighed our options, and eventually decided on a movie I'd never heard of - The Ghost Writer.  The plot was something like a young Obi-Wan Kenobi does covert spy work to take down James Bond, who is actually George Bush.  Meanwhile the old guy from Eternal Sunshine and Adele DeWitt watch from the sidelines.

Wait a second, scratch that.

Ewan McGergor is an out of work British writer who gets a job as a ghost writer for the memoirs of an old British Prime minister (Pierce Brosnan) after the old ghost writer turns up dead in the ocean.  Apparently the old writer was drunk, but if you can't figure out from this premise that he was actually murdered you need to watch more movies.

That plot summary is really great.  The whole movie felt the same way - we follow the increadibly likable McGregor around doing odd bits of investigation here and there, and he slowly puts together a giant conspiracy.  It's fun to watch, intense.  I likened it to the feeling I get playing Myst-style adventure games, where you're constantly snooping around in these places and expecting someone else to show up and ask you what you're doing, to which you will have no good response.  There's this ever-present feeling of tension.  I like it when a movie can give me that.

About halfway through, I was reminded of Hitchcock.  We spend the whole film following this one male protagonist as he is accidentally thrown into a world of political intrigue and deception, then gradually gets his bearings.  At all times, we know exactly what he knows - nothing more or less.  This is such a Hitchcock thing to do.  Not to say that The Ghost Writer was as good as most Hitchcock.  It was fun, to be sure, but it wasn't amazing.  Great atmosphere from the tension coupled with the color palette, sets, weather, etc.  The acting was fine.  It came together quite well and in a way that didn't need to use explosions or chase scenes (beyond a choice few that again reminded me of Hitchcock in that they actually seemed reasonable).  The clues our hero uncovered were all very reasonable.  The only gaping plot hole in the movie came at the very end, literally in the last 2 minutes.  For a modern film, I can't ask for much more than all that.  I highly recommend.


EDIT:  OH snap!  I almost forgot my favorite part of this movie.  The Observer was in it.  Yeah.  It was hilarious.