What is going on with these directors who were in the seventies considered to be making high quality risqué films, such as Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese and now Roman Polanski? What is it with their decision to suddenly start making mainstream, often clichéd high production film? Where Werner Herzog more or less got away with it (see previous review) now we have this preposterous film by Roman Polanski called The Ghost. I must admit, the cast list already made me nervous: Pierce Brosnan, who has never really been known for his great acting skills, Ewan McGregor, who had been making worse and worse films as the years have passed (two words to point out the start of his downfall: Star Wars) and Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall. Who will score very high on this year’s worst British accent list, in atrociousness almost comparable to Dick van Dyke’s Cockney in Mary Poppins.
Flabbergasted I came out of the cinema after seeing The Ghost last night; had this piece of ridiculous fodder been made by the same director who once made Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and more recently, though perhaps not in the same league, The Pianist? Over-the-top and completely unbelievable characters marked my shock in the first few scenes, the “typical” American agent being one of the worst, continuing with wooden acting and badly written dialogue in the next few. Ewan McGregor is doing another one of his stumbling fools, supposedly identifiable characters in the likes of all of Hugh Grant’s performances (It seems to fit a common American view on British people), while Pierce Brosnan is doing a very two-dimensional impression of an overly cocky politician involved in some dirty business. All of the characters were so unbelievable that to me it didn’t matter one bit if bad things started to happen to them. The only passable performance of the evening was by Olivia Williams who seemed slightly credible, as much as that was possible with the ridiculous plot twists of the story, as seemingly injured but possible scheming Adam Lang’s wife Ruth. There were some weaknesses in her performance, though mostly plot-related. For instance, when a likely affair between Adam Lang and his secretary is implied and then only in the most clichéd way by the passive-aggressive remarks of disgruntled Ruth. Why bother? It just adds to the incredibility of the story if no one seems to act like any normal person would.
Where Shutter Island and Bad Lieutenant were at least passable or mildly entertaining, The Ghost is a comedy, albeit not meant as one. The conspiracy plot twists just made me giggle in their reverence of the ‘intelligence’ they were revealing. And why does it make perfect sense to believe everything you read on the Internet after you’ve Googled someone’s name?
The ending only seems to confirm that the director didn’t even have the heart to persevere with this preposterous story. Bang, paper flying, The End. What?! To be honest, all this madness makes me fear for the much-anticipated Terence Malick project soon to premier at the Cannes film festival. If a director with credentials like Polanski can mess a film up as badly as this.
P.S.
Rereading this review I believe the amount of question marks proportionally reflect my shock and indignation of this film
Flabbergasted I came out of the cinema after seeing The Ghost last night; had this piece of ridiculous fodder been made by the same director who once made Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and more recently, though perhaps not in the same league, The Pianist? Over-the-top and completely unbelievable characters marked my shock in the first few scenes, the “typical” American agent being one of the worst, continuing with wooden acting and badly written dialogue in the next few. Ewan McGregor is doing another one of his stumbling fools, supposedly identifiable characters in the likes of all of Hugh Grant’s performances (It seems to fit a common American view on British people), while Pierce Brosnan is doing a very two-dimensional impression of an overly cocky politician involved in some dirty business. All of the characters were so unbelievable that to me it didn’t matter one bit if bad things started to happen to them. The only passable performance of the evening was by Olivia Williams who seemed slightly credible, as much as that was possible with the ridiculous plot twists of the story, as seemingly injured but possible scheming Adam Lang’s wife Ruth. There were some weaknesses in her performance, though mostly plot-related. For instance, when a likely affair between Adam Lang and his secretary is implied and then only in the most clichéd way by the passive-aggressive remarks of disgruntled Ruth. Why bother? It just adds to the incredibility of the story if no one seems to act like any normal person would.
Where Shutter Island and Bad Lieutenant were at least passable or mildly entertaining, The Ghost is a comedy, albeit not meant as one. The conspiracy plot twists just made me giggle in their reverence of the ‘intelligence’ they were revealing. And why does it make perfect sense to believe everything you read on the Internet after you’ve Googled someone’s name?
The ending only seems to confirm that the director didn’t even have the heart to persevere with this preposterous story. Bang, paper flying, The End. What?! To be honest, all this madness makes me fear for the much-anticipated Terence Malick project soon to premier at the Cannes film festival. If a director with credentials like Polanski can mess a film up as badly as this.
P.S.
Rereading this review I believe the amount of question marks proportionally reflect my shock and indignation of this film
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