Just an amethyst night

werdsmiffery:

The Ghost
Dir. Roman Polanski (France/Germany/UK, 2010)
128 minutes

Pros: A slick, propulsive directorial style, which creates and holds tension for most of the film’s running time. Pierce Brosnan having great fun as a preening, narcissistic Blair parody. Olivia Williams in the stand-out performance of the film as his troubled, loyal wife. Visuals that accentuate the eerie inside-the-bubble atmosphere of a celebrity-statesman’s life. The camera lingers on the stark modernist architecture of the beach house where the majority of the action takes place, and shots are framed to include the constant presence of bodyguards and security men lurking in the background. The at once sinister and helpful role played by technology. Eli Wallach in a great cameo as a cagey local.

Cons: A busy, overly intrusive soundtrack that at times detracts from the mood instead of adding to it. Kim Cattrall’s terrible “English” accent. Ewan MacGregor’s cue-card delivery.

In the end, this is a film of stock elements. Nothing wrong with that, of course, especially when the technique is so confident and assured. In the hands of a lazy or hackish director, it could have been terrible. Instead, it’s been elevated to something more than the sum of its parts.