"You ought not be written out of history."
~Ghost Writer~
"Why not? Most women are."
~Politician's Wife~
Plot
An unnamed English ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) is recruited to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). His predecessor on the project, Mike McAra, Lang's long-term aide, died in an apparent accident. The writer's agent, Rick Ricardelli (Jon Bernthal), is very much in favour, and the writer will make $250,000, but the project is on a very tight schedule. The writer travels to the fictional American village of Old Haven (an allusion to Vineyard Haven) on Martha's Vineyard where Lang is staying with his wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams) and a staff of servants and security personnel. The writer is checked into a small hotel. Lang's personal assistant (and mistress) Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall) forbids him to take McAra's manuscript outside, emphasizing that it is a security risk.
Shortly after the writer's arrival, Lang is accused by former British Foreign Secretary Richard Rycart (Robert Pugh) of authorising illegal seizure of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture by the CIA, a possible war crime. Lang faces the threat of prosecution by the International Criminal Court, unless he stays in the U.S. or goes to another country that does not recognise the court's jurisdiction.
***
Michelle Obama's convention speech lights up Twitter: According to the online social networking service, there were 28,003 tweets per minute at the conclusion of Obama's remarks. That's about double the number after Romney's acceptance speech last week, which was 14,289 tweets per minute at its peak.
The reaction from some conservatives was not as effusive. Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News that Obama's speech was "brilliantly delivered" but not convincing.
Blogger Michelle Malkin mocked in a Twitter post that Obama's line about the president not believing in "us" vs. "them" was "the knee slapper of the night."
Independent analyst Stu Rothenberg, who publishes a political newsletter, says there might not be any impact. "Michelle has become a terrific speaker," Rothenberg said on Twitter. "But why should that matter -- or whether Ann Romney loves her husband -- in picking a president?" "
***
Because once you throw the rule book out and say...
"HEY, THERE ARE NO RULES.
IT'S A DIRTY WAR,"
Synopsis
CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is briefing a newly arrived CIA agent in a square in an unnamed country in North Africa (filmed in Marrakech) when a suicide attack kills the latter and eighteen other people. The target was a high-ranking police official, Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor), who is in liaison with the United States and whose tasks include conducting interrogations, and even overseeing the application of techniques amounting to torture. Fawal escapes unscathed.
Egyptian-born Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), a chemical engineer who lives in Chicago with his pregnant wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon), their young son and his mother, is linked to a violent organization by telephone records indicating that known terrorist Rashid placed several calls to Anwar's cell phone. While returning to the United States from a conference in South Africa, he is detained by American officials and sent to a secret detention facility near the location of the suicide attack depicted earlier, where he is interrogated and tortured. Isabella is not informed and all records of him being on the flight from South Africa are erased, although records remain of him boarding the plane at Cape Town International Airport and making a purchase en route.
For lack of more experienced staff, Freeman is assigned the task of observing the interrogation of Anwar, whose interrogator is Fawal himself. After Freeman briefly questions Anwar, he is doubtful of Anwar's guilt. However, his boss, Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep), insists that the detention continue, justifying such treatments as necessary to save thousands from becoming victims of terrorism.
No comments:
Post a Comment