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The Ghost Writer

The Ghost Writer (2010)

tomatometer

84

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 195
Fresh: 163 | Rotten: 32

While it may lack the revelatory punch of Polanski's finest films, Ghost Writer benefits from stylish direction, a tense screenplay, and a strong central performance from Ewan McGregor.

81

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 37
Fresh: 30 | Rotten: 7

While it may lack the revelatory punch of Polanski's finest films, Ghost Writer benefits from stylish direction, a tense screenplay, and a strong central performance from Ewan McGregor.

audience

68

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 55,621

My Rating

Movie Info

A ghostwriter stumbles onto a secret that places his life in danger as he takes down the life story of a former U.K. prime minister in this Roman Polanski-helmed adaptation of the Robert Harris novel. Convinced by his agent that he's been granted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, talented British screenwriter "The Ghost" (Ewan McGregor) agrees to aid British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) in completing his memoirs after the leader's former aide dies under mysterious circumstances.

PG-13, 2 hr. 8 min.

Drama, Mystery & Suspense

Robert Harris

Aug 3, 2010

$11.0M

Summit Entertainment

Cast

All Critics (195) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (165) | Rotten (33) | DVD (7)

Polanski's 'The Ghost Writer': Cosmpolitan Composition

July 20, 2010 Full Review Source: Passionate Moviegoer | Comment
Passionate Moviegoer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The result is a political thriller refreshingly long on grown-up dialogue yet lamentably shy on, well, thrills. This chatty thing does go on.

March 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comments (5)
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The swirl of visual poetry, political intrigue and personal zeal that Polanski creates gets under your skin and brings an icy hand up your back. This is moviemaking.

March 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comments (2)
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Polanski is in total command of his medium, something that hasn't been a sure thing since the 1970s, The Pianist notwithstanding.

March 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

So elegant, so deliciously scary, so masterfully controlled that you feel tingles of bliss even as your skin crawls.

March 4, 2010 Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Another director would almost certainly have bobbled this devilish mixture of paperback suspense, political chicanery, and jet-black comedy. In Polanski's hands, it's an unholy pleasure: a diversion that stings.

March 4, 2010 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Ghost Writer is tense, unsettling and deeply thrilling because of the way a master filmmaker looks at the world.

May 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Parallax View | Comment
Parallax View

Polanski's a master of carefully drawing you in that cold gray place where everything is wrong, no one sleeps well and secrets are hidden from the hapless main character until it's too late for anyone to make it out with their lives or souls intact.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Movies.com | Comment
Movies.com

For all of it's mirroring of real life circumstances, The Ghost Writer's shrouded revelations are ever transitory.

March 9, 2011 Full Review Source: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema | Comment
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

The great thing about Brosnan's performance is that his character's shadow looms over the entire film, yet Brosnan never resorts to chewing the scenery or becoming a Blair charicature.

February 17, 2011 Full Review Source: The Standard | Comment

Polanski's skills are obvious in his compositions and patience, and a nervous energy hovers over much of the picture...yet I consistently felt disengaged, like the pacing was mismanaged.

January 30, 2011 Full Review Source: Film and Felt | Comment
Film and Felt

Polanski es un gran cineasta, y aquí lo demuestra - una vez más - en una narración atrapante que combina suspenso con humor negro (...)

January 19, 2011 Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | Comment
Uruguay Total

I would not put the narrative conceit The Ghost Writer perpetrates in its final moments past a doped up high school sophomore in a screenwriting elective.

January 10, 2011 Full Review Source: Bangitout.com | Comment
Bangitout.com

An often-tense affair that comes with just the right amount of cynicism, a great cast, and one that treats the audience with a modicum of intelligence.

November 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Flicks.co.nz | Comment (1)
Flicks.co.nz

Polanski at near the top of his form

October 8, 2010 Full Review Source: CultureCatch | Comment
CultureCatch

Polanski does an excellent job evoking an increasing sense of paranoia and danger.

August 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Autopsy | Comment
Cinema Autopsy

The Greyscale Adventures Of Tony Blair: SuperSpy (as I call it) is a deliberately directed, well acted and classy treatment of a plot that is so balls-out ridiculous I firmly believe the writer wears a tin-foil hat.

August 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Channel 10 Australia | Comment (1)

Polanski grinds the gears to entertaining effect, never losing pace from beginning to end, while not necessarily offering anything new.

August 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | Comment
Window to the Movies

We're all entitled to our own opinions regarding his past but Polanski deserves credit as a filmmaker. The Ghost Writer proves that he's as good as ever at the age of 77.

August 16, 2010 Full Review Source: ABC Radio Brisbane | Comment
ABC Radio Brisbane

Polanski's master touch, his attention to framing, lighting, to every detail, and his wicked visual witticisms make it a joy for any film lover. Welcome back, Roman.

August 12, 2010 Full Review Source: MovieTime, ABC Radio National | Comment
MovieTime, ABC Radio National

This effort joins the director's Frantic in the "jet-lag" category where mind and body can never quite catch up with a new, deeply problematic -- and probably dangerous -- environment.

August 12, 2010 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment
sbs.com.au

[E]legant, gripping... gorgeously simple to look at yet deeply involving in its story...

August 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | Comment
Flick Filosopher
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Ghost Writer

THE GHOST WRITER was very engaging. Rescan those points above, intertwine them with the spellbinding score by Alexandre Desplat (this is the kind of film he should be scoring), and you probably understand what I refer to. It also seemed a bit uneven. Seeing it as your average movie fan, I loved it, but when I tried

March 11, 2012
spielberg00
Alexander Diminiano

Super Reviewer

Not the best conspiracy film but under the hand of Roman Polanski, it entertains you long enough to finish it.

March 4, 2012
paul o.
paul oh

Super Reviewer

    1. Ruth Lang: I see you've taken out the Lang family tree [from the memoirs]. Adam's very proud of the Langs.
    2. The Ghost: You know, if you want a family tree, go to a garden center.
    – Submitted by Christian B (35 days ago)
    1. The Ghost: Hey Rick. Now they want the book in two weeks instead of four. Thanks for getting me this job. Can't talk. Some peace protestors are trying to kill me!
    – Submitted by Christian B (35 days ago)
    1. The Ghost: Why he keeps on calling me 'man'?
    2. Amelia Bly: Oh, he [Adam Lang] does this when he can't remember someone's name.
    – Submitted by Vesselinka S (2 months ago)
    1. The Ghost: It's my first time in a private jet.
    2. Amelia Bly: Let's hope it's not your last.
    – Submitted by Melisa E (4 months ago)
    1. The Ghost: I'm your ghost.
    – Submitted by Hanna K (7 months ago)

Latest News for The Ghost Writer

February 24, 2010:
Total Recall: Roman Polanski's Best Movies
For more than 40 years, on screen and off, no one has been able to unnerve audiences with quite as...

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Foreign Titles

  • Der Ghostwriter (DE)
  • The Ghost (UK)
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