“The Ghost Writer is a piece of thrilling cinematic creepiness, beautiful in its gloom and knuckle-crackingly sinister in its pacing that puts it right up there with the best things Roman Polanski has ever done — say Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby and his stupendous Knife in the Water,” writes Daily Beast columnist Simon Schama.

“It seems amazing that this study in many kinds of contemporary isolation and confinement, including those of the public glare, was written and filmed before Polanski himself became involuntarily re-acquainted with those themes, though perhaps the editing might have been sharpened by his experience.

“Mostly Polanski and novelist/screenwriter Robert Harris have caught the worlds they are representing: the publishing industry with old-style editors desperately hanging on amid the Bottom Line butchers; the better-paranoid-than-porous security detail surrounding Pierce Brosnan‘s Adam Lang — with complete authenticity. There’s a clammy dampness hanging over the whole enterprise, and I don’t mean the chowder.

“So forget the real-world echoes — or at least don’t let them get in the way of immersing yourself in the gloomy joy of this brilliant movie. And how could you not surrender to a film in which the GPS voice is a crucial character? Would Alfred Hitchcock have liked that? Hey, is Massachusetts rainy?”

The Ghost Writer has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 79%. Who are the naysayers? The N.Y. Post’s Kyle Smith, MTV’s Kurt Loder, N.Y. Observer‘s Sara Vilkomerson, Cinemablend‘s Katey Rich and, of course, Variety‘s Derek Elley.