The Ghost Writer (2010)

3/5

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/

Oliver Twist (2005)

3/5

Roman Polanski's version of the Dickens classic does not stand out in any way except visually, and not in an altogether positive way. The choice of which plot elements of the story would appear was kept to a minimum and included only the already famous "essential" scenes of the story. Although he did give slightly more depth to each scene, Polanski added nothing of his own directorial style, which made for a very uninteresting movie. We already know everything, so why are we watching? The film's colors are much too warm and inviting for the bleak and depressing environment of a traditional Dickens interpretation, as in the Lean adaptation. The acting, while acceptable, was hidden beneath layers of heavy make-up and exaggerated caricatures that made any emotional involvement with the characters impossible. The plot seems to progress by adding more and more characters instead of fleshing out and maturing old ones, and it becomes less and less about Oliver Twist the character and more about him as an object to own and use. And Barney Clark's Oliver just didn't garner much sympathy from me, I don't know what it was.

There were some positive attributes to the movie. The set design, costuming, and make-up was absolutely amazing. It was an exemplary achievement and a breathtaking spectacle to behold. Also, the music was really good, epic with just the right touch of melodrama. There were three excellent mini-scenes that really stood out and gave the movie a bit more visual flair than the otherwise boring and mundane shot/counter-shot staple. The pacing was precise, with nothing lingered on too profoundly. And while this review is mostly negative, nothing about the movie was appallingly bad. It just didn't live up to expectations, and nothing about it really warranted a remake. But I would say see it if you have no idea who Oliver Twist is! Which is nobody reading my reviews, I hope.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0380599/

The Ninth Gate (1999)

2/5

The Ninth Gate follows Johnny Depp as he travels around Europe trying to authenticate a rare text believed to be able to conjure up the devil. Yes, it does sound a little similar to Indiana Jones, but it doesn't play like that awesome adventure series. Instead, this piece of crap is filled with predictable subplots, hollow characters, boring action, unexplained scenes, bland cinematography, uninspired editing, unnecessary nudity, and mediocre acting. It is, in a word, bad. But in truth, as I was watching it, I was entertained. It was always pretty interesting and enjoyable. I kept waiting for an explanation, and the fact that none came only disappointed me at the end of the movie, not during! Also, there were some pretty funny parts (some unintentional). Save yourself the trouble of watching this movie because, though it may look interesting, you will get nothing out of it except exasperation.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0142688/

Death and the Maiden (1994)

3/5

Death and the Maiden is a psychological thriller from director Roman Polanski about a woman (Sigourney Weaver) who believes that a man her husband brings home one night (Ben Kingsley) was a key member in her torture years earlier. She ties him up and tortures him so that he will confess to what he's done. But did he really do it? So begins a tense night, where secrets are revealed from all three of the main characters. The plot progression was fantastic; we slowly learn of each person's history and motivations in very calculated amounts. Kingsley's acting was superb. Until the end, we could never be certain whether he did it or not. He reveals nothing despite being on screen almost the entire movie. Most of Weaver's acting was also great, but was marred by the occasional ludicrous piece of dialogue or ludicrous delivery of an otherwise normal line. The descriptions of torture were hard to bear sometimes, but essential because it gave the audience a glimpse into what she had been through. The music was great as well (Schubert's Death and the Maiden, from which this movie gets its title).

Sigourney Weaver was naked for a period of time in the beginning of the movie. It was both unnecessary and unwanted. Because she looks like a man--an ugly man. The first half hour or so felt really wobbly; you could tell how Polanski tried to force tension on the audience to keep us interested as he set the scene for the rest of the movie. The story often went off on tangents (the husband sleeping with another woman) that would neither relate back to the central plot nor increase the tension. So why were they included at all? Sometimes characters would act in extreme and unrealistic ways, and others would consequently react to those actions unrealistically as well. The ending felt like a cop-out to me because everything was tied up a little too neatly. Both the cinematography and editing were unexceptional, except for several shots that made excellent use of foreground and background to increase the tension. I really did enjoy this movie though, and recommend it if you like psychological thrillers and/or Polanski.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0109579/

The Tenant (1976)

4/5

Polanski's The Tenant follows Trelkovsky (played by Polanski himself) as he rents an apartment where the previous tenant committed suicide. Gradually, he begins to think that his neighbors are trying to turn him into the last tenant so that he too will kill himself. It is brilliantly suspenseful and psychologically terrifying as it crescendos to the shocking climax. And it is a refreshing treat after seeing Knife in the Water and Repulsion. He seems to have discovered cinematography, as we finally get shots where we can tell what's going on, thanks to the great Sven Nykvist. There are also some masterful camera movements and envious tracking shots (the camera once goes through a stairway railing, for example). I really liked the acting in this movie--Polanski knows what he's doing as an actor just as much as a director. Is is truly horrifying to see him not only inhabit the previous tenant's apartment, but also inherit her habits and friends. Subtly at first, then flamboyantly. The build-up works extremely well as it keeps your heart pounding ever harder, whether through anxious waiting or sexual tension. I absolutely loved the ending.

There were some problems with it as well. The first half and second half don't seem to mesh very well, almost as if they were two separate movies. The first half was a psychological thriller and the second half was a horror movie. The divide was really striking and much too sudden, taking away from my overall enjoyment. For some reason, some of the audio felt like it was dubbed over. Was English the original audio track language? I don't know. Also, there were so many side stories that neither advanced the plot nor increased the tension (like getting hit by the car and Stella's party).

This is definitely a movie other film fans will appreciate. I can see the inspirations for The Shining with the haunting imagery. Early in the movie, Trelkovsky finds a hole in the wall covered up with a cotton ball, behind which is a human tooth. Repeatedly, tenants stand in the bathroom staring up into Trelkovsky's room, keeping deathly still. And he borrows heavily from Hitchcock's best works: the doubling of elements and people in Vertigo, the voyeuristic viewing of neighbors in Rear Window, and the cross-dressing and split-personality in Psycho. I think most cinephiles will appreciate this movie based on those credentials, but if it sounds interesting and you like Polanski, this is definitely one to check out.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074811/

Repulsion (1965)

2/5

Repulsion focuses on a sexually repressed woman who goes crazy when she is left alone in her apartment while her sister vacations in Italy. Another Polanski, I had high hopes that were crushed. I do not understand what people see in this movie. It is certainly unsettling, frightening, and memorable, but that doesn't make it good. It is atrocious. The sound quality and video quality make it impossible to understand what's going on. The muddy, blurry black and white cinematography coupled with several dubbed-over audio tracks was just too much for me to handle. The music was effective at times, but also often out of place and dated. The clothes, mannerisms, and dialogue also felt outdated. It took about an hour to start getting tense, a very boring hour. The whole movie reminded me of Welles's The Trial, where I actually really did have no idea what was going on.

Like The Exorcist, it has scenes that truly terrify, images that stick in your memory, and a buzz about it that nearly forces any film fan to see it. What this movie did well was Deneuve's characterization. She starts off normal, if a bit odd, but nothing you can't empathize with. Then she turns on you and goes absolutely insane, with a vengeance. Much like A Clockwork Orange, you want to feel for the protagonist but find it nearly impossible to do so. Polanski was also able to evoke the most uncomfortable and nauseating feeling of claustrophobia I have experienced in a movie. It absolutely gets under your skin and chills you to the very core; you too feel trapped in this apartment, with sickness and deterioration all around. If you have already heard of this movie, then you are probably going to see it, regardless of the words in my review. If you have not heard of it, you will probably not appreciate the experience. I had heard of it, would have seen it if I had read a negative review from someone I trusted, and then thoroughly regretted the experience, as I do now.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0059646/

Knife in the Water (1962)

2/5

This Polish thriller from Roman Polanski takes an interesting premise and turns it into an awful script and a worse movie. The actors are supposed to be attractive but are in fact ugly. Hideous, even. They look and act as if they are in a student production or a low-budget, made-for-TV movie, and much of it seems to be (at one point we can even see the railing of a boat on which the camera is filming the scene). Polanski's dialogue is affected and his shot compositions are stylized in an effort to make them evocative. The story is all over the place, which no central tension or mood on which this drama/thriller can stand. There were senseless, meandering side plots, backstories, and dialogue. The music was off the entire time; it never managed the right mood or timing.

I can see the future Polanski in this earlier piece, but only in his thoughts and ideas. The attempts are genuine conceptually, but the execution is amateurish at best. Every so often there are scenes of anxious nervousness, of waiting in suspense, but they are few and far between in this otherwise drab and pointless film. The last 20 minutes or so were actually quite exciting, with a dramatic and unexpected turn of events. Also, the story of the seaman who jumped on broken glass is a good bookend for the morality tale of the movie (male posturing and oneupmanship). It was not what I expected going in, but it wasn't all bad. I had high hopes knowing what Polanski is capable of, but he does not achieve any of that greatness in this movie. As I said before with House of Games, Criterion does make mistakes. Although not quite the disaster that House of Games was, this movie is still one of those mistakes.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0056291/

The Pianist (2002)

4/5

The Pianist follows the real-life survival tale of concert pianist and Polish Jew Szpilman in Warsaw during World War II. It evokes an almost flawless sense of time and place. What starts as a family trying to maintain normalcy in trying circumstances gradually transforms into a desperate fight for survival as they realize the gravity and extent of the situation. The atmosphere was riveting and captivating. The movie held your attention because you had no idea what might happen next; people could get murdered in the blink of an eye, for any reason or lack thereof. There are many horrifying scenes that stay in the memory: a wheelchair-bound man who cannot get up to salute the Germans, a woman who asks a simple question, and a man about to be killed when the officer runs out of bullets. One of these moments reminded me of Rear Window. Watching, we are stricken with guilt because of both our own morbid curiosity and our inability to help out. The editing and advancement of the plot were exceptionally naturalistic. The music, although not as prolific as I thought it would be in a movie named The Pianist, was quite good when it appeared.

The cinematography was slightly above average, but nothing worth noting. At 140 minutes, it overstayed its welcome. It felt even longer because of the dense nature of the material being presented. The acting was not bad, but I felt it was a bit over-hyped. And Adrien Brody's nose is simply too big. Overall, it's not really my cup of tea, but it's an exceptional movie of one man's survival against brutality and malice.

IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0253474/