Ewan McGregor plays a British ghost writer (I think unnamed, so I'll just call him GW) hired to finish up the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister, Adam Lang, after the other ghost writer shows up on the beach, seemingly drowned to death from unknown causes. Adam Lang is now under fire for war crimes, and there is a mounting pressure to get the book done in a hurry. GW is whisked away from the UK to Martha's Vineyard in the US to meet with Lang, to better get a handle of Lang in preparation to ghost write the memoirs. By trade, GW is not an investigative reporter, but he soon finds himself in some political intrigue in this Polanski thriller, and while he allows himself to get in over his head at time, he keeps his wits about him, and has to sidestep all sorts of hazards and put together the pieces of the puzzle that have somehow fallen into his hands. Its tone and pacing are very Hitchcockian at times, which is a good thing.
The film boast a crackling good cast featuring solid turns from Olivia Williams, Pierce Brosnan, Tom Wilkinson, Eli Wallach, Kim Cattrall, and Ewan McGregor. The cinematography is very chilly, somewhat detached and bleak at times, but all the while heightening GW's mounting paranoia and uneasiness, and that comes about through Polanski's assured direction of a solid screenplay that made the 2+ hour running time fly by for this viewer.
I give it 3.5 stars, or a grade of B+.
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