The UrbanWire

“Heart is what sells autobiographies,” insists the unnamed ghost writer (Ewan McGregor), protagonist of Roman Polanski’s first feature film in 5 years. The setting: rainy London for an interview to finish the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan).

Securing the job, the British writer is immediately whisked to an isolated waterfront mansion on an island off America’s eastern shore, where things get fishy after he discovers the suspicious circumstances surrounding his predecessor’s supposedly drunken drowning, together with new accusations of Lang’s involvement in the capture of suspected British-born terrorists for interrogation by the CIA.

Add Mrs Lang’s miserable demeanour to the fact that his every move is cunningly watched by the former PM’s personal assistant Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall), and he blurts out the only thing he can muster over the phone to his over-eager American agent: “What have you gotten me into?”

Based on best-seller The Ghost by Robert Harris (who also worked on the screenplay for this film), a poetically suspenseful world, masterfully created by Polanski (The Pianist, Oliver Twist), is revealed that both grips and pulls you head first into a realm of conspiracies and cover-ups, with parallels drawn between Lang and another former Brit PM Tony Blair in building unabashedly comfortable relationships with the USA.

At 132 minutes in length, the movie tips the scales of what’s palatable, especially by modern short-attention-span audience standards, but unfolds in the most cautious and delectable manner possible, offering tiny slivers of revelation enough to ensure you’re kept in the loop, without really latching on to what’s really happening. I won’t hide it; this movie involves a fair bit of concentration and thinking to fully comprehend.

Despite the big-name line up though, none of the actors produce unexpectedly stunning performances, save one.

Sixth Sense’s Olivia Williams plays Ruth Lang, Adam’s strong-willed, wildly intelligent and manipulative wife. Without giving too much away, her role of someone initially thought of to be little importance to the story was brilliantly carried out, and her significance gradually became more apparent until it became clear her character is paramount to the movie.

Naturally then, her character and McGregor’s grace the screen most, while Brosnan’s and Cattrall’s gallivant around New York to secure the States’ support for Lang.

Contributing to the film’s dark and eerie nature is beautiful music by Oscar-nominated composer Alexandre Desplat, whose resume includes such films as Syriana, The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Fantastic Mr Fox. There is nary a moment where Desplat’s haunting melodies don’t creep up your back, inducing short but impacting moments of fear.

However, all the mystery and suspicion is simply left at that. Save a couple of nail-biting twists (including one where the writer is followed from the house of Lang’s academic acquaintance to a ferry crossing), it never feels like anyone is in any real danger, nor is there much sense that any conspiracy-revealing consequences are about to descend unceremoniously on the unlucky bloke who poked his nose in the wrong person’s book shelf (literally). In fact, the whole thing almost strikes you as paranoia on the characters’ part.

What we have here, then, is simply an elegantly crafted story with twists, turns and an unexpected ‘the butler did it’ kind of ending. It doesn’t quite matter that it isn’t the scariest thriller in the world, does it? And they say movies these days don’t focus on plot.

Title: The Ghost Writer
Opens: May 20
Duration: 132 minutes
Language: English
Rating: ★★★★☆
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Director: Roman Polanski
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall

6 years ago, Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon, Braveheart and The Patriot) decided to take a break from acting and went on to work behind-the-scenes, directing The Passion of the Christ in 2004 and Apocalypto in 2006.

It’s then with piqued interest that Gibson returns in front of the camera in the film adaptation of 1985 British drama serial Edge of Darkness, as a police officer no less, after more than half a decade off screen.

The story revolves around Detective Thomas Craven (Gibson) of the Boston Police Department who investigates the murder of his MIT-graduate activist daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic). Craven soon discovers that his daughter’s death by a shotgun round to her chest on the doorstep the day she decides to come home was more than he could’ve imagined.

The case leads him into a world of government conspiracies and cover-ups involving a Massachusetts-based nuclear research facility called Northmoor and its boss Jack Bennett (Danny Huston). He eventually becomes a target of the very people he sets out to catch.

From the get-go, the film is in good hands with director Martin Campbell and producer Michael Wearing, who were also responsible for the drama series that gathered 6 accolades at the 1986 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards.

Gibson gives a commanding performance throughout, and to be honest the film really is him all the time. In essence, this is the perfect role for an obviously aging veteran actor who looks visibly haggard and sports greying hair with a receding hairline.

Still, the 54-year-old manages to hold his own among younger counterparts in the action department, unleashing heavy blows and displaying surprising agility in fight scenes that seem to come with ease. The showing accuracy in shooting a moving target (in this case a person in a car rushing head on at him) in another scene involving an attempt on his life is evident that he packs as much punch.

British actor Ray Winstone (Beowolf, Fool’s Gold) as CIA agent Matt Jedburgh (originally to be played by Robert De Niro), who’s sent to prevent Craven from “connecting A to B” in his investigation is notable. Though he doesn’t have many appearances, Winstone performs admirably alongside the main character.

His character displays a cold, cynical front while from time to time showing hints of support and admiration for Craven and his cause.

The storyline is also well thought out, delivering an adrenaline pumping hook to the senses just when you think the events unfolding in front of you are getting a little bland. On hindsight though, the movie seemed a little draggy at some parts, especially as it isn’t exactly the typical gun-slinging action cop film you might be used to.

Fight scenes and shootouts are significantly toned down compared to previous Gibson films like Lethal Weapon. Instead, the movie chooses to play more on the emotions and investigative skill of Craven, so there’s understandably a significant proportion of the film spent talking and going around to interrogate people.

However, don’t expect the dialogue to be particularly deep. Like many dark police films these days it packs a substantial amount of expletives into character interactions, making the film’s rating in Singapore a not-so-squeaky-clean NC16.

Ultimately, Edge of Darkness is a fitting re-entry into acting for the Academy Award-winning director, and combines the emotional capability he displays in The Patriot and Braveheart with the familiar detective role in The Lethal Weapon he is equally known for.

This isn’t by any account one of the best films out there, nor is it very likely to be as highly grossing as the more recent popular titles, but still manages to offer movie goers the variety of both good action and some intelligence, so as to appeal to a wider audience. A decent watch all round.

Release Details:

Opens: Jan 28
Duration: 117 min
Language: English
Rating: NC16 (Violence and Coarse Language)
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Director: Martin Campbell
Cast: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Bojana Novakovic

When God loses faith in man, a legion (described as an army of between 3,000 and 6,000 by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary) of angels is sent to exterminate humankind forever and bring an end to the continued degradation of our society.

These angels, instead of swooping in to take us out with wings and all, possess the bodies of weak-willed people and give them razor sharp teeth (all the better to eat you with) and the ability to shape-shift into long-limbed fast moving humanoids (all the better to grab you with) to bring about the apocalypse.

Thankfully, one of those originally meant to destroy all life on planet, archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) turns against God to protect a certain pregnant mother (Adrianne Palicki) in a diner in the middle of nowhere whose unborn baby can “deliver what He (God) needs” instead of “what He wants”.

This is Legion, 2010’s first major disappointment.

Despite a relatively decent casting which includes Bettany (A Knight’s Tale, The Da Vinci Code), veteran actor Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow, Pandorum), rapper-turned-actor Tyrese Gibson (2 Fast 2 Furious, Transformers) and Lucas Black (Jarhead, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), the movie provides little more than a few action scenes peppered with corny, predictable one-liners.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, except that with this flick, plenty of things don’t quite seem to make sense.

First of all, despite its apocalyptic plot, surprisingly few of the good, fangless people actually die, unlike in recent similar-themed films such as The Day After Tomorrow or 2012.

Traditionally speaking, movies such as this need a good mix of both compelling action and story telling. Unfortunately, Legion had neither.

Another contributing factor is the film’s length. At just 100 minutes, there are even animated films longer than it. This means that the depth the plot can go into is compromised.

Even so, the storyline ended up pretty draggy, a far cry from the amazing trailer that released in August last year.

Action scenes, while decently put together, came at weird junctures of the movie and were unusually spaced out; the first of which occurred right at the beginning before a whole lot of dialogue comes by to put you to sleep and a final battle wakes you up again just before the close.

The action wasn’t even particularly enjoyable, as it seemed that all it took were good ol’ automatic weapons to effectively stop every wave of angel-possessed people, despite Michael’s incessant warnings that “they’re coming”. You wouldn’t be blamed for expecting more from God’s army.

Even the final big fight, in which a sea of attackers surrounded the diner causing you to truly fear for human lives, ultimately didn’t even happen as another archangel, Gabriel, gets involved by busting into the diner for a one-on-one duel with Michael, leaving the rest of the angel army standing outside like, well, zombies.

It is little wonder the film turned out so wrong. While director Scott Stewart’s resume boasts recent hits like Grindhouse, Die Hard 4.0 and Iron Man, all of which he played the part of an uncredited visual effects senior staff member, this is the first full-length feature film of his career, and it really becomes clearer as the movie progresses.

For those expecting this movie to be similar to the 2005 flick Constantine, prepare to be sorely disappointed, as Legion displays none of the plot development and character depth that the former had.

Despite this, the main protagonists’ performances were admirable albeit restrained to a certain extent by the storyline and plot. This was showcased mainly halfway through the movie when the action came to a temporary standstill, allowing some kind of character interaction.

Still, the movie overall left too many questions unanswered, which most often points towards the possibility of a sequel, but with the first movie as it is, do we really want one?

Like the apocalyptic films of the past decade such as The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, a sequel wouldn’t be required so they really should’ve tied up as many loose ends as possible.

At the end of the day, Legion displays some traits of formerly successful end-of-the-world films, but fails to deliver that final sinking punch. What a way to kick off the new decade.

Release: Jan 21
Duration: 100 min
Language: English
Rating: NC16 (Coarse Language and Violence)
Genre: Action/Fantasy/Horror/Thriller
Director: Scott Stewart
Cast: Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Lucas Black, Adrienne Palicki