MADness—the Blog

The ghostwriter does not get his name on the cover.  No one knows who he is.  People will buy the book, or not, for its subject.  The author does not matter.  That’s the way it works in the book business, at least when it comes to political biography.

When it comes to movies, and especially the recent movie about a ghostwriter and his subject, a former British prime minister named Adam Lang, it matters greatly who the author—or in this case, director—is.  Especially when his name is Roman Polanski.

The reaction to his new film The Ghost Writer is very divided.  Critics generally have been positive, and some have been especially enthusiastic.  But other reaction I’ve read has been highly negative.  The film is very good, though hardly perfect—yet some of the negative reaction doesn’t seem to me to be in proportion to whatever flaws the film has.  I suspect if the director were anyone other than Roman Polanski we wouldn’t be hearing some of that vitriol.

Pierce Brosnan gives a terrific performance as Adam Lang, a role patterned on Tony Blair in some ways.  Ewan McGregor plays the ghostwriter.  He doesn’t even get a name in the movie—he’s just the writer, or more often “the ghost.” Polanski might want to try that next time out.