Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown”. Whoops, no its not but the resemblance of this 2010 Polanski mystery/thriller to his 1974 classic detective mystery/thriller is palpable. The apolitical Ghost (Ewan McGregor) wins the assignment to help a former Brit PM (Pierce Brosnan, charismatic and soulless as the Blair-like official) write his memoir after the first ghost writer mysteriously dies. A powerful and sharp wife (Olivia Williams, excellent) and sexy secretary (Kim Cantrell, her accent keeps dropping from Brit to American) complicate the matter. The supporting cast (Tom Wilkinson) as the Harvard professor with shady connections to the PM and his wife and 94-years old Eli Wallach (brilliant as the old codger in the shack on near the beach) is very good. The film is very atmospheric and of course, given Polanski’s legal problems, was not shot in the US despite its theme of CIA subterfuge and American setting. Some happens in the town next to ours and we kept looking to see if it was really there. Nope. A very interesting film. My friend Ifor’s favorite of 2010. Brosnan is very good, although I was somewhat less moved by McGregor’s acting as the writer searching for the truth