MATT DILLON'S DIRECTORIAL debut is as surprising an announcement of an actual artistic sensibility as George Clooney's was with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. It would also be the best Graham Greene movie since The End of the Affair, if it were actually based on a Greene novel rather than just taking general inspiration from him – and would be better still if it had that author's firmer narrative instincts, which benefited the recent film version of The Quiet American. Dillon plays Jimmy, a U.S. insurance executive pursuing an agent who's disappeared into southeast Asia after pocketing funds that should have gone to hurricane-devastated claimants. The trail to elusive Marvin (James Caan) leads Jimmy to Bangkok, then to Phnom Penh, where a bar-hotel run by a hilariously tantrum-prone Gerard Depardieu magnetizes all tourists, expatriate strays, drunks, and shady dealers. Among them are flop-sweating Stellan Skarsg†rd as a highly untrustworthy tipster; Natascha McElhone as a visiting English art restorer, the de rigeur romantic interest; and Jimmy's eventual strongest ally, ricksha driver Sok (Sereyvuth Kem). Multimillion-dollar investment scams, quicksilver violence, the military's heavy hand, and ghosts of the dread Khmer Rouge layer Dillon and East Bay author Barry Gifford's somewhat messy screenplay. But if it doesn't fully satisfy as an old-fashioned tale of exotic intrigue, Ghosts more than compensates with innumerable surprise observances, sweet ironies, and dense textural pleasures. One of the first Western films shot in Cambodia since 1965's Lord Jim, Ghosts' rich color palette (Jim Denault of Boys Don't Cry is the cinematographer), roving eye, and alert editorial ideas create stranger-in-a-strange-land atmosphere that's uncommonly fresh. Dillon might have found someone more interesting to play the lead – but his direction shows so much enterprise, you can forgive the fact that his just competent acting, as usual, does not. (Dennis Harvey)