Say what you will about convicted sex offender Roman Polanski, but damn it all this guy can make movies. The Ghost Writer, his first work since 2005′s Oliver Twist, is brimming with disheartened tension and unanswered questions. If that’s so wrong to say, then try arresting me.

Working off of author and co-screenwriter Robert Harris’s 2007 novel “The Ghost”, Polanski was forced to edit his latest brain candy via Switzerland house arrest as he waited extradition to the U.S. for further punishment; extradition that never came. Does this lackluster way of trimming show in any way? Not at all. In fact The Ghost Writer may have worked so well because of Polanski’s rape case. U.K. Prime Minister Adam Lang, accused of war crimes by a writer tapped to pen his memoirs after his previous publicist mysteriously drowned, could as well have been a shadow of Polanski than Tony Blair, as Harris obviously made Lang out to represent.

A lot of people are writing this movie off as nothing due to the conditions it was made under. I say screw those ignorant cretins, as The Ghost Writer is the second-best flick I’ve caught on the big screen so far this year. However there’s nothing second-rate about this at all. Shot in sections of Germany, Polanski’s top-grade political thriller surely benefits from its suave surroundings by contriving weather status and extravagant residency to expertly craft the cover-up government instructors make sure is never exposed. Where a movie such as The Da Vinci Code tried to make the madcap scenery produce the best to its advantage, Oscar-nominated cinematographer Pawel Edelman hits every right note. Although like The Da Vinci Code, The Ghost Writer doesn’t exactly bring the sleazy, sexy suspense it probably could have, and there’s no muckraking conspiracy it ever really brings out. I still had a hell of a time with its cynical twists. The Ghost Writer isn’t quite misleading, but it is a very enjoyable B movie.

4/5 stars.

Watch my full review of The Ghost Writer here!