Everyone has been in a situation they knew was too deep but got involved anyway, especially when money was involved.  Roman Polanski puts his audience through this scenario with a bland and predictable approach.  “Ghost Writer” does not stimulate any senses or force the audience to even pay attention to the plot enough to surprise viewers with the ending revelation.

The film is set in Connecticut with a ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) assigned a huge sum of money to write memoires of a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan), who is being investigated for war crimes committed during his time in office.

Pierce Brosnan (Adam Lang) and Ewan McGregor in The Ghost Writer

Instead of constructing an intricate plot that is fun to watch unfold, Polanski beats his audience over the head with obvious clues of the big picture.  The entire plot is boring and uneventful. Polanski fails to connect his audience with a sense of meaning for the entire film.  Throughout the movie, it is hard to reason why you care about what is going on, or even about the characters. McGregor tries his hardest to save the film with sometimes-clever dialogue, but fails to grab the audience because of the thick layer of boredom that fogs viewers’ brains.

“The cure for insomnia” is a statement used by McGregor to describe the former prime ministers memoirs, but it would be better suited to describe this film.

The saddest thing about the film is it could receive praise by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences because, somehow, the predictable ending satisfied older viewers, mainly because Polanski knows viewers love feeling intelligent.  Younger audiences will find this film as an insult to their intelligence for even attempting to astonish them with the ending.