Directed by Roman Polanski

The Ghost is Ewan McGregor, a hack writer hired to finish and primp up ex-Prime Minister Adam Lang's memoirs after the previous ghost writer dies mysteriously. That the PM closely resembles Tony Blair both in manner and situation adds considerable spice to this good old fashioned low-action thriller that, while by no means Polanski's best, still bears enough of his hallmark traits to make it deeper than the average thriller, yet still highly entertaining.

Taking on the job McGregor (never given a name) crosses the Atlantic to spend time with Lang on the island off Cape Cod where he is holed up among the sand dunes in a bunker-like house-cum-office. Polanski likes isolation, particularly if it is on an actual island, and like Lindisfarne in Cul de Sac all those years ago this one is odd, unsettling, and peopled by self-contained individuals like the silent Vietnamese servants and uber-efficient PA and, we discover, mistress to Lang, the smart as a whip Amelia (Kim Cattrall). Talking to Lang the writer delves deep to put a more interesting angle on the, as they stand, rather stodgy memoirs, and unearths things from his student past which do not quite add up, along with a photo showing that he knew Paul Emmett (Tom Wilkinson at his most smooth-talking villainous best), now professor there in the States and bigshot with connections to arms and security holdings. Meanwhile considerable shit hits the fan for Lang and his household when he is fingered by a disaffected former cabinet member and indicted for of war crimes, as the plot also thickens regarding the increasingly suspicious demise of the previous ghost writer. (Enjoy the lovely cameo by Eli Wallach as man in shack.)

Pierce Brosnan is surprisingly convincing as the Blairesque Lang, with just that cocky mix of self regard and self delusion. It's not an impersonation to have a chortle at, like Michael Sheen treated us to in The Queen, but a rather disturbing, well-honed version full of flawed charm, such a Blair himself might secretly approve of. (Though even Brosnan doesn't quite manage the alarmingly glossy manifestation which recently appeared on these shores.) Olivia Williams is strikingly good as his posh-left, long-suffering wife Ruth, a truly rounded character, and McGregor is the best he's been for a while as the rather lightweight, wary outsider who really doesn't want to get mixed up in it all. Don't look for action here - the most he gets to do is run through a ferryboat and climb over some pointy railings - but the pursuit of answers and the sense of danger does keep one very well engaged. And as ever in a Polanski film, the locale is as powerful as the characters - here the German island of Sylt, (for obvious reasons Polanski was unable to film in the US), duney and windswept, feeling like the edge of nowhere.

If this turns out to be Polanski's last film, it's a good, intelligent, entertaining swansong.

Seen at Tyneside Cinema Newcastle, 6 April 2010