The Ghost Writer is bad, Polanski is putrid

A long time ago, I knew that Roman Polanski directed The Ghost Writer.  A long time ago in my world is anything before this morning.  When the movie came to DVD, I thought, “Oooooh, I like that Ewan McGregor, I should see this movie!”  Yep, totally forgot both negative reviews and name of director.

As the movie began, I thought it had potential.  By this point I had remembered the negative reviews, but who knows?  I liked the premise of a set of memoirs setting off a chain of political shenanigans and the anonymous ghost writer getting caught in the middle of it all.  The set-up was decent, I figured maybe I could eek out a couple of hours of entertainment.

Wrong!  The movie is ridiculous.  It’s boring (which Polanski cleverly tries to hide with Danger Music played loudly and persistently), the “crimes” are old news and completely irrelevant since approximately 1980 and the whole production is washed out and ugly.  The Ghost Writer sucks. 

But hey – bad movies happen, even with the best of intentions, scripts, actors and budgets.  It’s the way of the industry.  I would have just written it off as a failed attempt and thought no more about it but then, as the credits began to roll……I saw it.

Directed by Roman Polanski.

Polanski and his wife. In Europe, of course.

 Son of a bitch!  I never wanted to put another penny into the coffers of Polanski, yet here I was, doing just that for a movie that wasn’t even worth my time, forget my rental cost.  I didn’t set it up on the DVD player, and my son (who did) knows nothing of Polanski and his disgusting past.  If I had remembered that he directed, this movie never would have entered my home.

There are a lot of crappy, sleazy directors out there (I’m looking at you, Mel Gibson), but only two that I actively avoid.  One is M. Night Shyamalan, because people keep giving him money to make big movies that are epic failures on every level.  His movies are a waste of my time.

The other director on my shit list is Polanski.  Not because he makes crap – I saw The Pianist long ago and it’s fabulous – but because he’s a sleazebag who is too mewlingly pathetic to accept even a minimal punishment for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.  Allegedly (even though no one ever disputes that he did the crime for which he refuses to do the time).  He ran away when it became clear back in 1977 that he had drawn a judge who did not believe that drugging, raping and sodomizing a child should be punished by a 42 day stay in psychiatric evaluation.  When he caught wind that there might be, gasp, jail time associated with committing a violent felony he fled to Europe.

Apparently Europe doesn’t think the forcible rape of a child should be punished either.  They refuse to extradite.

But let’s get back to me.  I vowed, after reading about this repulsive act and man, that I would never again see any movie that might put even one thin dime into his pocket.  He’s a disgusting coward who has earned nothing but my contempt.  But now I’ve broken that vow due to my own lack of vigilance. 

So enjoy that fraction of a penny that you earned from me renting your piece of crap movie, Polanski, for this will be the last one you will ever see.  Not only have you committed real world crimes that make me want to puke, your movie also stinks.  Maybe it’s time to man up and take responsibility for both.

Photo by Georges Biard