A Talent for Murder review – A sharp and gripping thriller

Long before there was Dexter, and decades before even Hannibal Lecter, there was Tom Ripley – a fictional sociopath and serial killer whose mind audiences were invited into. Ripley’s creator was Patricia Highsmith, a prolific novelist who, despite also penning influential lesbian novel The Price of Salt, cornered the market on psychological thrillers that forced readers to question their inherent moral nature. One of her works, murder-swap tale Strangers on a Train even received a Hitchcock adaptation.

It’s appropriate then that new Highsmith-centred movie A Talent for Murder plays in a similar space – as darker drives are pitted against simply being a good, law-abiding citizen. It turns out the line between the two can be blurred and crossed. Sometimes with disturbing ease.

Based on the two-performer play Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith (and adapted by the playwright herself), A Talent for Murder takes liberties with the last days of Highsmith’s life. Set in 1995, the film sees Alden Ehrenreich’s young literary editor, Edward Ridgeway, sent from New York to a remote corner of Switzerland to convince the reclusive and resistant Highsmith (Helen Mirren) to pen one more Ripley book. An initial clash of wills gives way to an uneasy collaborative game: Highsmith will sign Ridgeway’s contract if he’ll help her plot out a perfect murder that meets her literary standard. Meanwhile, Highsmith may or may not be trying to kill her visitor.

There are many a stage-to-screen adaptation that fails to escape the sense that it was made for the confines of a theatre. Denzel Washington-starrer Fences and the recent The Invite come to mind as examples. That isn’t the case with A Talent for Murder, though.

While a chunk of the action takes place in Highsmith’s modernist home, with its moody wood-clad interiors, and is really just barbed conversations between writer and editor, the film’s structure transports viewers outside into the wider world as well. Not only does Ridgeway’s incidental romance with trust fund baby Clementine Balfour (Olivia Cooke) hauls viewers off to Swiss villas where the one percent live, but his and Highsmith’s narrative collaboration results in a story within a story, where Ripley (played by Ehrenreich) worms his way into the life of aimless heiress Clementine Balfour (yes, Olivia Cooke again), against the backdrop of multiple glamorous Rome and Zurich locales. And P.S. no, that repeated name wasn’t a mistake.

All this said, a combination of visual flair from iconic music video director Anton Corbijn, with electric performances and dialogue, mean that A Talent for Murder never feels dull on a cinematic front. The film could have been confined entirely to Highsmith’s house, and viewers would likely remain engrossed.

The secret sauce is the film’s outstanding performances. With Mirren it’s expected, and the Oscar winner takes the role of the notoriously complicated and unapologetic Highsmith, and runs with it. The writer’s audacious comments and behaviour come across as consciously designed to get under Ridgeway’s skin. However, as much as Highsmith relishes toying with Ridgeway, like a cat with a mouse, glimpses are still provided into the misery, pain and frustrations that have shaped her into a bitter, cynical misanthrope who prefers the company of snails.

It’s Ehrenreich who surprises and impresses most, though. If audiences only really know the actor from Solo: A Star Wars Story, and his police officer role in Weapons, they haven’t really seen what he’s capable of. Until now. A Talent for Murder, where Ehrenreich must shift between unassuming, but quietly seething Ridgeway, and smooth master manipulator Ripley – increasingly with the divide between the two falling away – reveals substantial talent to keep an eye on in future.

The only real drawback of A Talent for Murder is the film’s ending. Its ambiguity means viewers will have fun debating what exactly has happened, but the amount of time spent with Ridgeway outside Highsmith’s den complicates matters in an aggravating, head-scratching way that the self-contained play avoids. In A Talent for Murder, the audience is essentially taken offstage with the character, which muddies clarity as to his role in proceedings. And the less said about an unresolved plot thread that brings Ridgeway to Switzerland in the first place, the better.

Despite this, however, A Talent for Murder is still worth a watch. The combination of captivating acting, and the film’s overall narrative slipperiness, with fluid slips between fact and fiction, make this one of the more intelligent and interesting thrillers of recent years.  

A Talent for Murder is in cinemas from Friday, 13 November.