Acclaimed music video director Anton Corbijn returns to narrative features with “A Talent for Murder”, produced by Bleecker Street. Joanna Murray-Smith adapts the screenplay from her 2014 play Switzerland.
Set in 1995, “A Talent for Murder” offers a fictionalized look at the final months of renowned thriller author Patricia Highsmith, portrayed by Helen Mirren. The story follows Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich), a young man sent from New York to Switzerland with the unenviable task of convincing Highsmith to write one final installment in her celebrated Tom Ripley series.
During his journey, Edward encounters fellow American Clementine Balfour (Olivia Cooke). As he attempts to win Clementine’s affection, his pursuit gradually takes a darker turn, blurring the lines between fiction, obsession, and reality.
I walked into “A Talent for Murder” having seen only a handful of trailers and unaware that it centered on a real literary figure within a fictionalized narrative. From the marketing, I assumed Ehrenreich was playing an aspiring author taken under the wing of Mirren’s character, perhaps even learning the finer points of getting away with murder.
The actual film is more cerebral than that premise suggests. Mirren gets plenty of room to shine, delivering Highsmith’s biting observations and witty one-liners with effortless confidence. Her scenes with Ehrenreich provide many of the film’s strongest moments. Ehrenreich matches her dry wit with an old-school charm that occasionally recalls the kind of earnest leading man who might have wandered out of a classic Frank Capra picture.
Cooke also remains an engaging presence. She brings Clementine an approachable girl-next-door quality while maintaining just enough mystery to keep viewers questioning where the character fits into Edward’s increasingly strange world.
Where the film begins to lose some momentum is in its reliance on a story-within-a-story device. Mild spoiler: Edward and Clementine eventually become characters inside a novel Highsmith is developing with Edward. Ehrenreich and Cooke handle the duality well, but the concept becomes increasingly elaborate, and the eventual third act reveal never carries the impact the film appears to be building toward.
That keeps “A Talent for Murder” from reaching the heights of its central performances. Mirren remains excellent throughout, fully embracing Highsmith’s intelligence, abrasiveness, and unpredictability. Ehrenreich also continues to make me interested in seeing him embrace darker material.
His natural charm makes the possibility of something sinister underneath even more effective. I could easily picture him as Jack Mort in a properly unsettling adaptation of Stephen King’s The Drawing of the Three, particularly with Mike Flanagan behind the camera.
“A Talent for Murder” isn’t necessarily a film I’ll revisit, but Mirren and Ehrenreich make the journey worthwhile. Fans of Patricia Highsmith—and particularly viewers who enjoy literary mysteries that play with perception and reality—should find enough here to appreciate.
“A Talent for Murder” opens in theaters this Friday.
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