Polanski returns with the ghosts of Iraq past

Roman Polanski's film The Ghost, which is released in Britain on Friday, was originally called The Ghost Writer before it was changed back to the title of author Robert Harris's best-selling thriller on which it is based. This is noteworthy because while the film is about a ghost-writer - Ewan McGregor as a jobbing hack with an Estuary accent - more than a few ghosts stalk the film.
 
The obvious - and much publicised one - is that of Tony Blair, in the form of Adam Lang, the film's former British prime minister who needs the ghost-writer to finish off his memoirs. Lang is staying on an American island, presumably Martha's Vineyard, during a US lecture tour.
 
A former political journalist, Harris was a one-time friend of Blair's before the pair famously fell out. Pierce Brosnan's Lang is a slick yet slippery character, a man whose accent wavers between RP English and a transatlantic brogue just as Blair's does these days. As McGregor's unnamed ghost-writer notes: "All [Lang] wants is his place in history".
 
Although Olivia Williams, excellent as Lang's formidable but fed-up wife, bears only a passing physical resemblance to Cherie Blair, the parallels here are also undeniable. Polanski appears to enjoy playing with this, forcing sniggers from the audience when Ruth Lang seduces McGregor's ghost-writer.  
 
The ghosts of Iraq also lurk - from the protestors' dead soldier sons to the late Robin Cook, in the form of the bearded former British foreign secretary Richard Rycart who accuses Lang of war crimes and pushes for his extradition.
 
And central to the film is the spirit of Mike McAra, the ghost-writer's predecessor. McGregor replaces McAra after his body is washed up on the island. Police declare the case a suicide but McGregor soon becomes convinced that more sinister forces are at play. As McAra's replacement, McGregor literally steps into the dead man's shoes - staying in his old room and driving the silver BMW he used just before his death.
 
Polanski successfully builds up the suspense through the unsettling landscape - an off-season resort beset by storms and a designer beach house that seems cold and haunted - and ominous music. From The Ghost's moody and mysterious opening through to the powerful final frame of a wind-blown London street, the atmosphere is foreboding and heightened with a Hitchcock-like sense of unease.
 
Although some of the climactic scenes are undeniably laughable - conspiracy theorists would be proud of the way McGregor gathers his evidence against the CIA via Google - The Ghost is a riveting, involving and enjoyable watch. And while parts of the plot may be preposterous, the film still seems frighteningly believable.
 
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:
 
Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times: "The Ghost Writer is the kind of impeccable adult entertainment, able to alternate edge-of-your-seat episodes with bleakly comic moments, that Hitchcock used to specialise in and that Polanski himself realised so successfully in Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby."

Roger Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times: "Polanski at 76 provides a reminder of directors of the past who were raised on craft, not gimmicks, and depended on a deliberate rhythm of editing rather than mindless quick cutting." (4/5 stars)

Kirk Honeycutt, the Hollywood Reporter: "This is not the kind of thriller that requires a lot of action. Rather, unease creeps into every word and deed. The very shape and feng shui of the house's interiors feel all wrong. Every human being the ghost-writer encounters seems to be dealing from the bottom of the deck." ·