Directed by: Anton Corbijn
Starring: Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich, Olivia Cooke, Juliet Stevenson
Patricia Highsmith was among the most popular writers of the 20th century, as well as among the most irascible if A Talent for Murder is to believed. It allows Helen Mirren to dig her claws into playing Highsmith as she verbally spars with agent Edward Ridgeway (Ehrenreich), who visits her home in Switzerland to convince her to write another Tom Ripley novel. Edward is a huge Ripley fan, and uses his knowledge of the character to try and talk Patricia into one more go-round. Patricia, who at first dismisses Edward out of hand, but then decides to humor him, tasks Edward to dream up the next Ripley story. It is here where A Talent for Murder envisions Edward as Ripley and a young woman he met on the train ride through the Alps named Clementine as Ripley's next mark. Is Edward closer to Tom Ripley than he would like to admit? Is the entire movie simply dreamed up by Patricia? The movie plays with those and other possibilities.
A Talent for Murder is never quite as tense or introspective as, say, The Talented Mr. Ripley is. But despite that, watching Mirren tear into Edward and the publishing industry in general is amusing. The movie even toys with the notion that Patricia, when inspired, could be a killer herself. Most of the movie focuses on the next potential Ripley novel, which seems rather simple considering the source subject and the themes encountered in other Ripley novels. But maybe A Talent for Murder isn't as much about the book within the movie, but about how well we think we know Patricia and Edward and, under the right circumstances, could they be persuaded to kill?
A Talent for Murder works also because of its atmosphere. The movie has a perpetual late-afternoon, early evening feel in which the lighting suggests looming darkness in both the action and the characters. It's quite effective and it's also interesting that Ehrenreich can stand toe-to-toe with Mirren as a worthy adversary. Maybe he is Tom Ripley after all.
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