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floatingdave
Reviews
The Ghost Writer (2010)
Pedestrian at best
No comparison to the Ninth Gate, one of my favorites, is possible. This movie should be lost in the dust bin with the only redeeming features being the excellent location staging and cinematography.
The plot is very tired, worse, the actions by the characters are not motivated at all. There is no connection between the harebrained actions of the characters and a real world person. Call me politically tired and jaded, but after some 60 plus years of close cooperation between Great Britain and the US who would really care of a close relationship between a PM or his closest aides and the CIA? "In the pocket of the CIA" "is an agent of" are only a meaningful plot devices when such a concept is earth-shatteringly negative. What difference would such a person really make between the US and GB? Each country routinely spies on friendly nations.
Come'on Roman, red herrings does not make tension, timing, pacing, involvement, all bring tension; Ghost Writer is lacking in them all.
The bigger story was the university professor acting as a CIA recruiter at Cambridge - who else did he recruit? How naive is the Ghost Writer in his actions? Is there really a professional writer who has never read a spy novel? A high school student, reading any silly spy novel would have never done half the stupid things which the Ghost Writer actually does.
It all concludes with another stupidity. How stupid is the Ghost Writer giving the spy a note identifying her as the spy - given that the spy had already caused people to die. It isn't even as interesting or as intelligent as Three Day of the Condor, where the paper (NYTimes) gets the information... where is the intelligence? Stupid, stupid, stupid; but pretty.
L'inconnu dans la maison (1992)
Who is the real stranger?
An aged Belmondo plays "out of character" as a lawyer at the bottom, drinking his days away after the suicide of his wife 10 years ago. He lives in the same house as his daughter and her governess but he rarely interacts with them. One evening a shot rings out and a dead body is found in his house. One of a group of his daughter's friends is implicated in the murder. Belmondo decides to defend this person.
The plot line is simple - a drunken lawyer whom everyone discounts observes and asks the "right" questions. It is a detective movie, with Belmondo "innocently" talking to his daughter's friends in social settings before the trial. Belmondo sees many things which the police and court officials have overlooked. In the court room all discount the sleeping drunk. During Belmondo's cross-examinations truths come out. As the trial warms-up so too does the cold relationship between Belmondo and his estranged daughter.
With such a simple plot it is hard to articulate why I enjoyed this movie other than the excellent acting by almost all involved. It is much better than the somewhat similar movie (The Verdict) starring Paul Newman.