09 21 26 Sanders' League of Unpaid Film Critics (SLUFC) The Ghost Writer (2010)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Ghost Writer (released as The Ghost in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is a 2010 neo-noir[4] political thriller film directed by Roman Polanski.[5] The film is an adaptation of the 2007 novel, The Ghost, by Robert Harris with the screenplay written by Polanski and Harris. It stars Ewan McGregor in the title role with Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall, and Olivia Williams. The film was a critical success but a modest commercial success. It won numerous cinematic awards including Best Director for Polanski at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival and also at the 23rd European Film Awards in 2010.[6] Plot A nameless British ghostwriter is hired by London-based publishing firm Rhinehart, Inc. to complete the autobiography of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang after the original ghost, Lang's aide Mike McAra, dies in an apparent drowning accident. The Ghost travels to Old Haven on Martha's Vineyard, where Lang and his wife Ruth are staying at a complex with Lang's personal assistant, Amelia Bly. As Lang's time as prime minister is marred by his involvement in the war on terror, the Ghost encounters anti-war demonstrators and activists who are protesting Lang's presence on the island. As the Ghost works on the book, former British Foreign Secretary Richard Rycart accuses Lang of authorizing the extraordinary rendition of terrorists. Lang faces prosecution by the International Criminal Court if he leaves the United States and is rushed to Washington, DC, for PR, while the Ghost finds a hidden envelope under a clothes drawer. The envelope contains photographs that contradict Lang's claims about his past, including that he and Ruth met at Cambridge University, and the personal phone number of Rycart. The Ghost probes the death of McAra and investigates the shore where his body was found, where he is told by a resident the tides would not deposit a body on the beach. The Ghost grows more suspicious when Ruth reveals that Lang and McAra argued the night before he died. The Ghost uses McAra's old car to return to his hotel, but instead follows pre-programmed directions on the car's satellite navigation system, which takes him to the Belmont home of Harvard Professor Paul Emmett. The Ghost questions Emmett, who denies ever having met McAra and having only a cursory acquaintance with Lang, becoming more evasive when the Ghost presents him with evidence that shows otherwise.