Why did you think it had to happen? I do not really see why in the context of the story. Was it to convey that Ruth really had no love for Adam, so she can randomly sleep with a new guy? What do you guys think?
shareAfter completing, this is one of the questions I have too. I really don't understand why she felt the need to sleep with him. (Obviously, it's what she wanted, it didn't happen on impulse)
shareWell, at this point she knows he's digging deeper than just ghosting the memoir, he's looking into his predecessor's death and is getting suspicious. Easiest way to keep him on her side? Sleep with him.
shareI don't see how sleeping with him makes it easier to shut him up. Considering that Ruth at that point was pushing him to investigate the matter. Even the morning after, she asks him what is he going to do about it and he simply says that he's not going to investigate it because he's a ghost writer, not a investigator. (to which she doesn't react happily IIRC)
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I would disagree with that, I don't think she would want him to keep investigating so she would feel better about killing him. She was a CIA agent alright but not a pure evil villain. I think in their scenes (The Ghost and Ruth), it was established that Ruth liked him (as far as respect is concerned at least)
shareThis is a sophisticated lady, she had to have had a motive, this is not a love story. A spy simply does not act in such a human and dangerous way. If she liked him and anyone found out he would have been killed as well has her self, because of what they may have known. She was a CIA agent and wife of a former Prime minister, Not a love sick woman.
shareBut it certainly kept her from his suspicions for a long time, and it gave her the relationship with him to ask him what he was going to do about all of it. The fact that she doesn't react happily to his saying he's not going to investigate makes complete sense, given that she's playing him, she wouldn't want him to think that she wants him to keep his nose out of it. It doesn't make him easier to shut up, but it gives her a tactical advantage knowing where he stands and keeping herself out of his investigation, at least in the short term.
shareAfter reading these comments, I would think Ruth did it because she was already suspicious that Ghost may be on to her. Therefore she slept with him so she could gain his trust, and not suspect that she was up to any no good. What you think?
shareI took it as she was trying to sell the story of how Adam initially got into politics as Adam had recalled it: raining and she showed up soaked, emotional.
shareI think there are a zillion reasons.....she was attracted to him, and she seemed to take a very quick interest in him from the moment he arrived at the house. Yes, she wanted to get back at Adam for his affairs and particularly the one with his assistant whom he kept so close while keeping her so distant. Ghost most certainly wasn't going to turn her down being a horndog......he quite clearly wanted to get into Ms. Bly's knickers when he first met her, despite his protests of being too close to the client......and in hindsight, it's likely she also felt the need to sleep with him to make him biased and keep him off her trail. She knew he was nosy and did as much investigating as the prior author did.
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You know, I never really understood why Mike was in that movie. I liked it. It felt right. But I never really understood it as a pivotal plot device. Thanks!
I am not a Frankenstein. I'm a Fronkensteen.
It never says or indicates anything about his secretary sleeping with the prime minister in the movie why does everyone keep assuming this. She seemed like a close adviser and no more.
shareOh yes there definitely are allegations about Lang and Bly being too close, though it remains uncofirmed if she's really a mistress or it's just rumours (but everyone seems to know about it).
1) when Adam Lang flies to Washington to consult US politicians and Amelia is also going with him, Ruth quite angrily suggests "Why don't you share a suitcase? It's so much more convenient."
2) at the book's launch he says to Amelia: "Ghosts are never invited to the launch party, as a rule. We're an embarrassment. Like a mistress at a wedding." She looks down sadly and he adds "Sorry."
UPDATE: Also, when Amelia and Ghost meet before the launch, she's crying a bit too much for someone who was just a boss.
1. I get what you are saying, but when you review that scene again you can clearly see that Ruth is jealous of him confiding in Amelia instead of herself. She is on the outside looking in with her husband and Amelia has his ear.
2. She was not at his wedding, I get the point of what you are saying but I also took away from it that Amelia was not a cheater as she comments on her husband.
She is the secretary of a very important man in politics one could see she was his right hand women and maybe even his best friend. she may have been just sad that he was dead. They were close, it is not unusual for two people to care for one another in an endearing way.
They never shared a look of a couple having an affair or any glancing looks of any kind as people do when they are intimate.
I think this scene was put in to gin up sympathy for Ruth's character. It served as misdirection to the audience, which ultimately made the final twist at the end more impactful.
The audience was thinking, 'poor pathetic Ruth who's desperate and lonely and pouts the whole film' then bam... she's not weak at all she was the freakin' mole~ Kinda like in Showgirls when we feel sorry for the main chic the whole time because Vegas people are evil, only to find out in her past she's been more corrupt than anybody in Vegas with a wrap sheet a mile long!
Early in the film it was stated that it was who Ruth insisted on hiring him as the ghost while Ms Bly was less than impressed. I think Ruth convinced Adam to hire him for the following reasons;
1) because on his previous record he would probably write a biography more desirable to the general public and would be likely to steer away public suspicions and negative images of Langs' term as Prime Minister. Hence his omission of the boring and unnecessary beginning of the book where Emmett was mentioned.
2) and also on his previous record he'd be less likely to make the sort of enquiries that would lead him to become suspicious of what was really happening.
3) despite being a CIA agent she was still human and clearly not enjoying the time in the isolated location with her husband becoming closer to Ms Bly. And it went further than Adam coming more under Ms. Bly's influence. She wanted some younger and creative man about to bonk with so she could feel reassured about her own attractiveness and feel some sort of revenge for Adam's affair. And as a CIA agent she felt that she might be able to manipulate the Ghost, which is clear by her attempt to bully him into erasing references to her from the biography the next morning.
And of course by bedding the ghost she'd leave him with an impression that she wasn't a very large influence on her husband.
Ewan McGregor's contract has a clause that says he has to be nude at least once in every movie.
shareI just watched this film. Is it ever explicitly mentioned or shown that Adam was having an affair with Amelia Bly? Or is this something you are all inferring. I pretty much came to that conclusion too, but I don't remember any definitive proof. The only actual cheating I seem to recall was Ruth's tryst with the Ghost. Is it possible that they did not have an affair, but Adam and Amelia were just attracted to one another- without consummating the mutual desire? I know Ruth made a caustic remark toward Amelia indicating the sort of disdain a wife might express toward a mistress that keeps hanging around, but now that we know how the film ends isn't it possible that Ruth was creating a subtrefuge for Ghost's benefit. Kind of like what another poster said - that she wanted to act the part of a scorned wife to cast attention away from her real role.
shareI don't think there is any definitive proof; but aside from Ruth's comment about Amelia and Lang sharing a suitcase, there are a few scenes. Towards the beginning Amelia makes some excuse as to why she doesn't wear a wedding ring; then at the end of the movie at the release party she is upset and says something about "it didn't work out" when the Ghost asks her again about her husband (and at this point Lang has been killed). Also at the book party, the Ghost, in speaking to Amelia, makes a pun about "like a mistress at a wedding", then quickly follows it with "sorry". That pretty much clinched it in my opinion.
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