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* Meaning it is the 88th movie I’ve seen this year. I am up to 98, the most recent being Moon by Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie who sang Space Oddity, so there’s a symmetry there). Each movie is counted only once, and the favorite movies I watch all the time can only be counted once a year. I also make a list of all the books I’ve read. I do not have daily routines (Wake up at 7, Office at 9, etc) so I make lists instead.

I’ve never been a ghost writer. Apparently there are two things against me: one, I sound too much like myself; two, I am “too opinionated” (their exact words) and cannot be trusted to write something I don’t agree with (Dammit, not even the slightest whiff of an offer to go over to the dark side). Which is probably just as well because “ghost writer” is a scary title—nonexistence does not appeal to me.

In The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski’s adaptation of Robert Harris’s bestselling novel The Ghost, our lovely Ewan MacGregor is a writer who does other people’s autobiographies. His character doesn’t have a name, he is always referred to as ‘The Ghost’. The Ghost is hired to work on the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang—the manuscript has been written but it’s bland and needs to be overhauled in one month. The previous ghostwriter has become a literal ghost—he was found drowned on the beach on Martha’s Vineyard, an apparent suicide, near the house where Lang and his staff are staying.

Our protagonist gets to work in that same house on Martha’s Vineyard, a modernist affair that’s all glass and angles, and as gray as the frozen landscape. Also in the house are Lang’s angry, brilliant wife (Olivia Williams, who specializes in intelligent women), his assistant (Kim Catrall, who can only play one role: Samantha), and the rest of the staff. The manuscript, which cannot be taken out of the room, is even duller than The Ghost had expected, so he starts doing some research of his own. The stuff he turns up provides the meat of the story.

When Harris’s novel came out critics quickly leapt on the parallels between Adam Lang and Tony Blair. Like Blair, Lang supported the invasion of Iraq, and as the story progresses he is charged with having turned over terror suspects to the CIA for torture. Pierce Brosnan gives the best performance of his career as Adam Lang: he is charming, calculating, and like all men used to power, he cannot stand having his motives questioned.

The Ghost snoops around the island, where he gleans interesting bits of information from a native (Eli Wallach) and an old associate of Lang’s (Tom Wilkinson). At first he seems to be in no real danger, but you know that something bad is coming, and you can hear Polanski gleefully tightening the noose. The Ghost Writer is the work of a master having fun.

It’s not strictly a thriller—no strange noises in the night or bursts of violence—but an intellectual puzzle for grown-ups. Was the first ghost a suicide? What did he know? Why is the wife so bitter? Why is Catrall always smirking? (Nope, that’s just bad acting.)

The main puzzle of course is, Why did Tony Blair Adam Lang always act in the best interests of the Americans? And who is the real Ghost?

Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer opens at Greenbelt 3 and Glorietta today, August 4.