"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown" or should I rephrase it "Forget it, it's CIA"

I  recently saw the movie "The Ghostwriter" made by Roman Polanski. It brought  my memories of Polanski's other movie "Chinatown".This blog is not a review but is about  interesting observations and similarities i found in these two movies and style of Polanski's narration.

 "Chinatown" was a classic political drama with a unique story telling in the film noir genre. 25 years have passed and "The Ghostwriter" somewhat possessed a similar storyline. The politics of real estate was transformed to ever-controversial Iraq war in this movie. Both the movies contained part mystery and part political drama.

Ghostwriter, played by Ewan Mcgregor, was hired to complete the memoir of Ex-British PM Adam Lang,played by Pierce Brosnan, when the previous writer and PM's aide dies in a mysterious circumstances. Ghostwriter reaches the island where Lang is staying currently at that moment. At that moment Lang is accused of  handing over suspected terrorists who were also British nationals to CIA. International Criminal court accepts the criminal case against Lang. Through memoirs and other clues left by his predecessor, Ghostwriter suspects that Lang may be a CIA agent since 70s.

Ghostwriter is similar to character Jack Nicholson played in Chinatown who unknowingly becomes part of sinister plot and refuses to let it go. Olivia Williams,  Lang's wife  in "The Ghostwriter" and  Faye Dunaway's character in "Chinatown" were developed in same manner with both getting involved romantically with the Lead Character. These female lead characters were strongly written and developed. The antagonists had a limited screen space but the way John Huston played Noah Cross in "Chinatown" made it to be considered as one of the hated villain characters in history of cinema, which couldn't be replicated by Tom Wilkinson in "Ghostwriter". However the twist in "Ghostwriter" is revealed at the end while "Chinatown" reveals the plot in the middle.

Both the movies ended  in the same pessimist note and somewhat reflected the style of Polanski's works. He always explored the psychological side of all the characters. His characters were always close to reality and storyline is inspired from actual events. However it is difficult to attain cult status like Polanski's movie like "Chinatown" and "Pianist".

Polanski is one of my favorite director of 70s' along with Martin Scorsese. I hope i can write on Martin Scorsese one day.