Sunday, February 28, 2010

RAVE - The Ghost Writer

According to some stories, this is loosely based on shenanigans surrounding Tony Blair, the British prime minister who brown-nosed the country's entry into various American-sponsored conflicts.

Maybe we'll never know for sure whether or not he sanctioned water-boarding and other acts of torture, but this was an interesting if fictitious take on the shabby goings on in Whitehall and the White House.

I'm not sure if there's ever been a senior executive on either side of the Atlantic as suave and good-looking as Pierce Brosnan, but as all of us gorgeous hunks know, we're not as angelic as we look. 

This is a thriller in the classic sense - no gratuitous violence, no ridiculous special effects, not even a big explosion - and it's all the better for that.

Ewan McGregor was perfect, Pierce Brosnan wasn't, but what stood out like sore thumbs in an otherwise excellent movie were Kim Cattrall trying to do an English accent and bombing badly, and the usually fabulous Tom Wilkinson trying to do an American accent.

I'd heard that director Roman Polanski idolizes Alfred Hitchcock, and the film looks, sounds and runs like a Hitchcock thriller, right down to the wintry scenes and dour colors. Made to look like Martha's Vineyard, the movie was shot in Germany, because Polanski cannot enter the US without being arrested. Now that's another thriller in the making.

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