Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer is an exceedingly well-made thriller of the caliber that I have come to expect from Polanski, despite the flops he's made both recently and in the past. The plot follows a new ghost writer (McGregor) who was hired to help the former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Brosnan) write his memoirs. The movie sets the stage quickly and gets more mysterious even quicker. The previous ghost writer died under curious circumstances, the new ghost writer was hired as fast as possible for a huge profit, and Lang just got accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for aiding the CIA in torturing terrorist suspects.
In terms of directing, this movie is superb. It is Polanski at his best. The camerawork, the editing, and the acting are all phenomenal. They work in synchrony to build tension out of nothing. I just wish Polanski had better source material to work with. It's unfortunate that there is such a disjoint between the quality of Polanski's work and the quality of the plot itself. I didn't appreciate the story that much; it seemed a bit simplistic and unimaginative. The pieces just don't fit together particularly well, despite everything tying up in a neat little package in the end. I don't know what quality it is about the piece, but I left the theater feeling a little dissatisfied. Still, I would advise you watch it if you found the trailer interesting. You may not have the same qualms I do about the film. If that's the case, you will love this movie.Note: it seemed as if the movie was edited for language (dubbed over, specifically) so that it could be released as a PG-13 movie. I suppose they did it to try to make more money, but the movie wasn't publicized well enough and it didn't play in enough theaters to make it a smart decision. And it just wasn't done in a particularly professional manner. Bad move, distributors, bad move.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139328/