The Ghost Writer (2010, France)

I love Ewan McGregor, and Olivia Williams is incredibly talented, so she carries a good deal of the weight of this film. Acting talent is very important in this type of slow-building suspense, where there's no obvious threat but instead a creeping feeling that something's wrong. The atmosphere is equally important, and it was dark and chilling.

I found the plot a bit strange, alternating between inexplicably complex moments and stagnant inaction. It wasn't bad per se, I just kept waiting for something to happen or something to make sense. Sometimes it was the good, suspenseful kind of waiting, but sometimes it was just a bit dull.

The last 60 seconds of the film were the absolute best. I love a good plot twist, and while part of this twist should have been more predictable, the other part came out of nowhere and completely made the film. Amazing what an ending can do to improve one's final impression of a film!

Rating: 3.0

The Pianist (2002, France/Germany/UK/Poland)

Adrien Brody is a genius. He has such an impressive acting range, I just can't say enough to praise him. The variety of intense emotions he can portray just leaves me speechless.

This film was powerful, you can't deny it. I think the main reason that I didn't like it more was because it was so long, which gave a good feeling of time passing, but they didn't use a lot of the time as well as they could have. So many scenes that seemed like the natural progression of the story just never happened.

However, since the whole movie was pretty much Brody on his own, it was powerful stuff. Music was also beautiful. I would definitely recommend this for music lovers, Holocaust buffs, those who like character-driven films, and those who like slower-paced historical drama.

Rating: 3.5