A movie about a writer?

Been done. “Capote” is one of the more recent.

But a movie about an unknown writer – a ghost writer – now there’s an interesting concept, particularly if we can trap that writer in some kind of disaster about to befall the person whose book he’s ghostwriting.

Director Roman Polanski does that in his new film, “The Ghost Writer”.

Says Los Angeles Times and NPR reviewer Kenneth Turan, “This film is a thriller, wrapped around a roman a clef about contemporary politics, wrapped around Polanksi’s eternal cynicism about the fate of individuals faced with the entrenched strength of the powerful. The director blends personal preoccupations with audience preferences as effortlessly as Alfred Hitchcock did.” [Here’s the link to the full review. ]

Did Turan like the film?

Oh yes.

Will you?

If you like a good story well told, yes.

And if you, too, are a writer?

Absolutely.

Two side notes:

– Robert Harris, the screenwriter for this film, first made his mark as a television news reporter, journalist, and columnist. He wrote Fatherland, his first suspense novel, in 1992, then followed it with Enigma (1995), Archangel (1998), and The Ghost (2006). This last is the basis for  “The Ghost Writer”.

– Roman Polanski edited the film while he sat in jail in Switzerland. He had been arrested on a  32-year-old warrant from the U.S. for having had sex with a minor. Said Pierce Brosnan, one of the stars in this movie, Polanski “would be in his nine-foot by four-foot cell, edit the movie and give it to the warden. The warden would give it to Polanski’s lawyer (who would) then give it to the editor.”

That’s a gem of a story in itself.

Tomorrow: The prolific Donald Westlake