Whipping Ghosts

OK, that’s a poor title but it’s the best I can do to encompass the two films I saw this evening – The Ghost and Whip It.

The Ghost

“They can’t drown two ghost writers. You’re not kittens!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: After the initial ghost writer of a politician’s memoirs mysteriously drowns, a replacement is drafted in – just as some nasty rumours kick off.

First of all, this film is called The Ghost Writer everywhere except Europe. I have no idea why it’s changed here, and the end credits give it its original title. So if you’re in the US, it’s the same film.

Ewan McGregor plays “The Ghost”, a writer whose job it is to take someone else’s words and draft them into something resembling a book. For some reason he’s been cast as English, yet manages to pull off the accent pretty damn well. His job is to work on a near-finished manuscript when the original Ghost drowns while drunk. The subject – ex British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan).

Lang is very much based on a Blair/Bush combination. Slimy, untrustworthy and possibly guilty of war crimes. A lot of the things mentioned in the film were incidents that happened or were alleged to have happened while the gruesome twosome were in charge of the UK and US. This does influence the way the audience feels towards the character and adds a good dimension to the story.

Lang’s wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) is the other major player. Typical of a politician’s wife, she’s been in the background but it becomes increasingly obvious she’s been pulling his strings for some time.

This is a slow-burning film, but it never loses its way. It’s fairly taught and the central characters aren’t by any means unbelievable. MvGregor’s Ghost really is rather bumbling, not some guy who’s secretly a MENSA candidate or the next… whatever the guy from The Da Vinci Code is called. Throughout, it’s always tough to figure out if he’s making progress or being played. As a result, you really are kept guessing right the way through.

It won’t suit everyone as there’s a lack of high-speed chases, enormous set pieces or fast-cut hand-to-hand combat sequences. What there is, is a damn good story well told. It isn’t perfect – the ending with its superb twist is actually somewhat abrupt – but it’s very enjoyable nonetheless.

Whip It

“Yeah, let’s celebrate mediocrity!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell – girl lives at home with domineering mother, girl discovers outlet in the form of roller derby, girl must keep it a secret from domineering mother.

Bliss Cavendar’s (Ellen Page) mother is typicall mid-American (if the films are to be believed) and wants her daughter to follow in her footprints as a pageant queen. Bliss doesn’t know what she wants until she spies some roller derby bitches, attends her first competition and finds herself turning up for a practice session.

Needless to say she then gets hooked on roller skating, dressing like a tart and smacking other women around. This is by no means a bad thing. She also falls for the local bad boy, falls out with her parents, argues with her best mate and changes the fortunes of the team.

So far, so seen-it-all-before.

Whip It doesn’t stand a chance of pipping Dodgeball to the title of “funniest sports-based comedy ever”. Hell, Dodgeball managed it despite the huge handicap of featuring a Ben Stiller “comedy” character. Still, this isn’t a bad flick. Drew Barrymore is in it, so there’s eye candy, and she also directed it – I believe this is her first attempt. Credit to her, especially for the roller derby sequences which really give a feeling of being in the middle of it all.

Juliette Lewis is also a main character and I still don’t like her. Still, despite this, the cast are fairly strong and up to the task. Pretty much every stereotypical character and plot strand from this type of film is in there, present and correct, but it does hold its own. The ending may not be quite what you’d expect either…

Better than an elbow in the face.