Trying to capture the charisma and craftiness of one of the greatest writers of all times, Patricia Highsmith, is nearly impossible, and Anton Corbijn’s A Talent for Murder shows why. Although Helen Mirren as Highsmith is up to the task, too much of the film is about a fictional romance between Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich and a lovely stranger on a train, Clementine Harriet Balfour (Olivia Cooke).
He is assigned by his publisher to convince Highsmith, living in remote Swiss Alps, to write the 6th Tom Ripley novel, one of the most recognizable heroes of the 20th century. Not an easy task any way you look at it.
Within Edward and Patsy’s screwball insults lies their crafting a new Ripley, and until the thriller does concentrate on the murders, it’s pure joy to watch the two characters joust about his need to have her sign the agreement to write the novel. With various killing instruments displayed on her wall, it’s almost certain they will take prominence sometime in the latter half.
Such is the joy of the wits battling and the great Mirren convincing us she is this crusty intellectual bound to get the best of her publishers. While her craft is art, theirs is strictly business.
Watching A Talent for Murder is a sweet visit with Agatha Christy and a brief visit by Jason Bourne.It’s all consummate entertainment peppered with mystery. In these chaotic times of election fraud and creeping autocracy, it’s nice to know we can parse a cinematic homage to murder by design and emerge feeling good about our intellectual and aesthetic selves.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio.Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com