A subtle and elegant thriller

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 22, 2023

The first impressionable thriller of 2010. [Full review in Spanish]

| Oct 5, 2022

It's the kind of film that comes along all too rarely, and you find yourself hoping it won't be his last.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 19, 2021

Watching Blair's thinly disguised surrogate get put through the wringer in The Ghost is probably the closest we'll ever get to see him face retribution for his follies and crimes.

| Nov 29, 2020

Perhaps the most prominent interest in the film will be for the controversy Polanski has gotten himself into in his personal life.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 29, 2020

...succeeds both as a popcorn movie and as a work of political criticism...

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 30, 2019

It's an overripe conspiracy thriller knotted with an unlikely twist. But it's certainly compelling enough. The suspense is taut. Riding this hairpin narrative with McGregor at the wheel is a lot of fun.

| Jul 23, 2019

A good, old-fashioned suspense yarn that culminates with one of the most haunting final shots in years.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 7, 2019

A small-scale thriller with a deep cast and a neat twist that makes it a cut above most.

| Original Score: B+ | May 10, 2019

Polanski navigates superbly the fine balancing act between honouring his story's genuine thriller tension and paranoia, versus its more pulpy, playful bent.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2019

The acting and script are stilted at times, but The [Ghost Writer]'s central tension and gloomy atmosphere smooth over any clunky bits, resulting in a sophisticated yet brilliantly simple thriller.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 5, 2018

The Ghost Writer is a good thriller.

| Oct 4, 2018

This isn't a great film. You won't carry it around in your heart for years to come... But it'll keep you with it right to the very end, which has to be worth something. It may even be worth quite a lot.

| Aug 30, 2018

The dialogue and suspense created by director Polanski are first rate. You will enjoy this film.

| Jan 13, 2018

In the total context of Polanski's hard life and grim ordeals ... The Ghost Writer constitutes a miracle of artistic and psychological resilience.

| Jun 20, 2013

It's a slow build that hints at something big from the beginning but unravels nicely throughout.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 31, 2012

Polanski has made a genre piece with a verve and vitality that's in sadly short supply.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2011

The Ghost Writer is tense, unsettling and deeply thrilling because of the way a master filmmaker looks at the world.

| May 1, 2011

Polanski's a master of carefully drawing you in that cold gray place where everything is wrong, no one sleeps well and secrets are hidden from the hapless main character until it's too late for anyone to make it out with their lives or souls intact.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 4, 2011

For all of it's mirroring of real life circumstances, The Ghost Writer's shrouded revelations are ever transitory.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 9, 2011