A Talent for Murder

Check out my full review @ https://movieswetextedabout.com/a-talent-for-murder-movie-review-alden-ehrenreich-steals-a-sharp-darkly-funny-highsmith-thriller/ Rating: B+ A TALENT FOR MURDER is a sharp, darkly funny, quick-moving thriller that I enjoyed quite a bit. Alden Ehrenreich is the big revelation, switching between the anxious Edward and the dangerously smooth Tom Ripley with little more than a change in his smile or his gaze. Helen Mirren is gleefully nasty as Patricia Highsmith, and their power-shifting verbal fights are the heart of the film, which makes her near-disappearance in the second half all the more frustrating. Olivia Cooke is easy to overlook, but she’s great, even with an underwritten Clementine. Anton Corbijn’s restrained direction and the clever novel-within-the-film structure turn a two-person play into something that feels like cinema without losing the tension,...

Mysteries have been a staple of the movie industry almost as long as the artform has been in existence. However, the point of these thrillers is to figure them out (or at least get a clear explanation of them), not leave audiences confused by what they just watched. But that drawback, unfortunately but accurately, justifies the opinions of many viewers and critics about this latest release from director Anton Corbijn. Fans of mystery novels have long loved the works of author Patricia Highsmith (Helen Mirren), especially the five books she wrote featuring the enigmatically notorious villain Tom Ripley. In 1995, as Highsmith’s career was winding down and not long before her death, she was living as a recluse in Switzerland. And, even though the quality of her writing was slipping, her publisher was still determined to get one last Ripley novel out of her, despite her lack of interest in...