The shadows of the real and the real, the truth and the shadowing of the truth, are historical repertoires and recurring themes in Roman Polanski's films. Compared with the uncompromising "souling" of historical truth in "The Immoral Trial" and the truth brutally buried by black in "Chinatown", the truth in "The Shadow Writer" is still turbulent, but in It has diminished in strength to the point of serving as a skin for the seriousness of the film. In "Shadow Writer," a mix of Hitchcockian suspense thriller and Kubrick political satire, Polanski seems to have deliberately kept his old style as restrained as possible in order to absorb more new At the same time, he did not forget to use metaphors to insinuate the embarrassment of his own situation and to express his contempt for a certain country.
An overview of the plot seems necessary. At the beginning of the film, the body of former shadow writer Mike McCalla was washed up on the beach by the sea, which the police determined was an "accident". McGregor gets a job and goes to work on the island where Prime Minister Adam Long (Pierce Brosnan) took refuge, while privately investigating the cause of his predecessor's death. At this time, the Prime Minister is being besieged by the media and denounced by the public for approving the torture of Iraqi prisoners of war and the extradition of prisoners of war to the United States. At the same time, political opponents are also attacking him in the form of public lawsuits. At the moment, it seems that he has no choice but to seek refuge in the United States. other way. During the investigation, McGregor discovered that there was no reason for Mike's death, and after further tracing the clues left by Mike, it was found that the Prime Minister's wife Ruth Long had some connection with the CIA...
It's interesting to compare the situation of the British Prime Minister in the film to that of Polanski himself when he made the film. Before the film was finished, Polanski was arrested by the Swiss police (again because of a romantic grudge 30 years ago), and he completed the post-editing of the film in his house under house arrest while fearing being extradited to the United States to serve his sentence. make. This adds to the irony of the film even more. In that famous documentary "Wanted and Desirable" about Polanski, Polanski is shown as someone who is treated differently in two worlds: in the United States, he is wanted; In France, he is desired. What a reversal of Adam Lang's situation in the movie: He was denounced in his own country and popular in America. Of course, Lang is not a personification of Polanski himself, and any comparison of the two should end there. But, through Lang, the expelled prime minister, Polanski was indeed expressing contempt and dissatisfaction with the United States: where, with so many abuses and tortures of prisoners of war, it sheltered a prime minister who had gone into exile for such events, But he wanted him for more than 30 years for a suspicious seduction case.
Polanski is 77 years old this year. At this age, people really should make some kind of review and summary of their own life, the defense should be justified, and the recognition should be admitted. When people are young, they often pay attention to abstract things such as history, truth, justice, and value, but when they get old, they often pay more attention to themselves. Therefore, "Shadow Writer" contains a lot of self-referential and self-justification, which makes sense.
If you only look at the genre of political thrillers, "Shadow Writer" can get at least four stars (out of five) for its fine details and narrative sophistication. But it's also a Polanski film, and for his fans, compared to the best of "Chinatown," "The Pianist," and "The Tenant," it's a little weaker in seriousness, The personal style aspect is also less pronounced, making Shadow Writer somewhat bland.
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