★★★☆☆

The Ghost Writer is an involved cloak and dagger story somewhat along the lines of Smiley’s People. As such it demands you pay a bit of attention. I’m going to say up-front that I don’t think my 3-star review is probably fair. I was tired when I put this movie in. Snoozed for a couple of minutes and had to back-track to where I last remembered. Not exactly how one should watch a spy movie, but I needed to get it watched and sent back. I am going to put it on my rental list for another go.

Pierce Brosnan is how this got on my rental list. I know many critics and movie goers like to shit on him for some reason. I was a little kid watching Remington Steel with my family on one of the five channels we had. It was a cheesy happy time where you either read a book or watched what was on one of the five channels so the country as a whole wasn’t quite as divided. Nutters that would follow some hand polished turd like Donald Trump were living in mud huts somewhere in Appalachian Mountains where they would never bother civilized or any other kind of society. Before we had fiction networks like Fox being allowed to call themselves “news” networks. He reminds me of this time and I don’t believe he is that bad of an actor.

Now, if you want to talk about his singing . . . on that the haters and I can find common ground. That was rather brutal in Mama Mia.

Some Surprises

Olivia Williams delivers a phenom performance in this movie. In many ways her character carries the entire story. I must regrettably admit to not being familiar with her body of work. I did search her filmography and add a few more titles.

The Ghost Writer also gives Kim Cattrall a chance to play someone other than Amanda on Sex and the City. What a God awful show that was! Her character was so different in this film that I was a good fifteen minutes in before I realized it was her. She even did a very good British accent . . . okay, I’m American, so it was good enough for me.

I wish I hadn’t been so exhausted when I watched it. I believe that’s how I missed the suspense part of this film. It had a very British subdued tone to it. Like Smiley’s People, you had to pay attention to find the suspense. This is not a pizza and 6-pack movie.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.