All Critics (195)
|
Top Critics (37)
|
Fresh (165)
|
Rotten (33)
|
DVD (7)
Polanski's 'The Ghost Writer': Cosmpolitan Composition
The result is a political thriller refreshingly long on grown-up dialogue yet lamentably shy on, well, thrills. This chatty thing does go on.
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.
Polanski is in total command of his medium, something that hasn't been a sure thing since the 1970s, The Pianist notwithstanding.
So elegant, so deliciously scary, so masterfully controlled that you feel tingles of bliss even as your skin crawls.
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.
The Ghost Writer is tense, unsettling and deeply thrilling because of the way a master filmmaker looks at the world.
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.
For all of it's mirroring of real life circumstances, The Ghost Writer's shrouded revelations are ever transitory.
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.
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.
Polanski es un gran cineasta, y aquí lo demuestra - una vez más - en una narración atrapante que combina suspenso con humor negro (...)
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.
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.
Polanski at near the top of his form
Polanski does an excellent job evoking an increasing sense of paranoia and danger.
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.
Polanski grinds the gears to entertaining effect, never losing pace from beginning to end, while not necessarily offering anything new.
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.
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.
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.
[E]legant, gripping... gorgeously simple to look at yet deeply involving in its story...
More Critic Reviews
Top Critic
