Movies

The Ghost Writer should be an incredibly enjoyable movie to watch.

With Ewan McGregor in the lead as an unnamed wordsmith, Pierce Brosnan as former British Prime Minister Adam Lang and Kim Cattrall as Lang's aide Amelia Bly, this stellar cast should be able to carry the movie — but they can't.

McGregor's character is hired to ghost-write the memoirs of the former PM (Brosnan) — stepping in when the first ghost writer dies mysteriously.

Undaunted, the writer flies to Martha's Vineyard to finesse the existing manuscript and put the heart of the PM into the book. But almost immediately, Lang is ordered to stand trial for war crimes. In a plot twist mirroring shades of the Tony Blair era in the UK, it's claimed Lang authorised the illegal seizure of suspected terrorists and handed them over for torture by the CIA.

From here, panic ensues as Lang is besieged by haters, and finds his life in grave danger.

Meanwhile our ghost writer stumbles across some information that looks to clearly link Lang to the CIA. But will he be able to stand this information up before he endangers is own life?

Roman Polanski directed this political thriller, and while it's cinematically dramatic in its backdrop, the movie just seems to meander along rather than hit the super-charged drama button you'd expect.

I'm not going to give the plot away here. And fans of the book this movie was based on — The Ghost by Robert Harris — will be pleased that the movie largely echoes the outcomes of the novel.

But overall the snail's pace hampers the enjoyment of what should be a very watchable movie.