There is too much trolling around in the dark, and some garbled and repetitive plot turns in the film, but, when the action breaks out across that slate-colored plain, Scott uses 3-D well, giving the movement persuasive depth.

NEWYORKER: That??s Life

Polanski used the dour north coast of Germany as a substitute for the Vineyard in winter, and the cinematographer Pawel Edelman turns the constant downpour and gloom into a beautiful, slate-colored curtain a subdued but enveloping field of lies and secrecy, impenetrable to the Ghost, who is lost among power players far too clever for him.

NEWYORKER: The Ghost Writer