Plot: A young man travels from New York to Switzerland to try to persuade acclaimed thriller writer Patricia Highsmith to write one final installment of her Tom Ripley series, with his efforts gradually turning more sinister.
Review: Just in case you didn’t know, A Talent for Murder is not a biopic of Patricia Highsmith, the acclaimed author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train. Highsmith was not a murderer who tried to off people like her literary creations. She did have an eccentric personality that often caused discomfort amongst friends and acquaintances, which drives the distinct portrait of her played by Helen Mirren in this film. A Talent for Murder is a tribute to Highsmith’s trademark writing style. incorporating the author herself into a Ripley-esque tale. Directed by Anton Corbijn, A Talent for Murder manipulates the viewer into a story that may not be as simple as it seems, keeping you guessing as to what is really going on as bodies pile up and blood begins to flow. It makes for an oddly old-school drama inspired by the dramatic source material at its core.
A Talent for Murder opens with ambitious junior literary editor Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich) traveling to Switzerland on behalf of Patricia Highsmith’s publisher to convince her to write one more Tom Ripley novel. En route, Edward meets a stranger on a train, fellow American Clementine Harriet Balfour (Olivia Cooke). The two young people strike up a brief chat before parting ways. When Edward arrives at Highsmith’s remote and secluded home, the author is gruff and dismissive of the young man. While Edward brought the gifts she requested, including a hunting knife for her collection, she refuses his request that she write another Ripley. Highsmith slowly warms to Edward, and they begin developing a story that seems perfectly fit for Tom Ripley. Highsmith even challenges Edward to kill off a character and, if up to her standards, she will agree to author another book.
At first, much of the interaction in A Talent for Murder echoes the stage play on which the screenplay is based, positioning pairs of characters in different scenes heavy with dialogue. The story includes some recreations of the story Highsmith and Edward are creating together, which showcase Edward and Clementine playing the literary characters. This is a unique way of presenting the creative process while also giving Alden Ehrenreich and Olivia Cooke, as well as Juliet Stevenson as Aunt Peggy, the chance to play dual characters. It also begins to blur the line between fiction and truth, as what we perceive as Highsmith and Edward’s imaginations may be more than it seems. The film feels like a riff on The Talented Mr. Ripley, notably Anthony Minghella’s film, with the complex murder plots enacted on screen playing as expertly choreographed as an orchestra. It is fun to watch and deliciously brutal, with equally sexy moments shared between Cooke and Ehrenreich.
The best part of A Talent for Murder is the conversations between Patricia Highsmith and Edward Ridgeway. Helen Mirren is solidly gruff, confrontational, and deeply strange as she inhabits Patricia Highsmith’s isolation and detachment. Highsmith was a lesbian who raised snails and loved to drink and smoke, elements Mirren uses to transform from elegant into a small, frail woman. Alden Ehrenreich gets to channel the Ripley actors who came before him, including Matt Damon, John Malkovich, and Andrew Scott, as he shifts readily between a nebbish underling and a master criminal, sometimes leaving the audience wondering which character is real and which is the fictional one in the story-within-the-story. Olivia Cooke is good as the object of desire, but the best moments are the ones with Highsmith. When the film ventures away from the house, the momentum lags a bit, and it feels like A Talent for Murder is treading water until it is time for Highsmith to take center stage once again.
Filmmaker Anton Corbijn keeps his direction understated and reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock rather than his own music video work or his films The American or A Most Wanted Man. The screenplay by Joanna Murray-Smith, adapting her own stage play Switzerland, sometimes loses the thread when it tries to be another Tom Ripley story itself rather than sticking with the duel between Highsmith and Edward. At times, A Talent for Murder feels like it goes too far in trying to make the viewer think that Patricia Highsmith may have been an actual murderer or at least a master manipulator. We are given clues that she may have killed a dog or even the previous literary agent sent to convince her to write another book. The attempts to subvert our expectations and make us think there is much more going on than meets the eye are not needed, as the sharp clash between Mirren and Ehrenreich is more than enough to sustain the narrative.
I enjoy the way that A Talent for Murder positions the development of a new story almost as if the writers are committing the crime themselves. The combination of Helen Mirren and Alden Ehrenreich makes for a really entertaining, creative process. I do feel a little strange that the legacy of Patricia Highsmith as a human being has been recast as a portrayal of her as a potential monster, even if it is positioned as an ode to her and her writing. A Talent for Murder loses the thread a bit when it tries to turn itself into a Highsmith story instead of being about her stories, but the strength of Helen Mirren’s portrayal is enough to keep you invested in this thriller. A Talent for Murder does not live up to the complexity and layers of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but it is still a unique way to offer a glimpse inside the mind of one of the more enigmatic authors of the twentieth century while also paying homage to her creations.
A Talent for Murder is now playing in theaters.
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