BRITISH AND IRISH FILM FESTIVAL
A Talent for Murder
In 1995, reclusive crime novelist Patricia Highsmith receives a persistent young emissary seeking one final Ripley novel. She refuses—unless he can help devise the perfect murder, beginning a deliciously dangerous contest in which fiction and reality become impossible to separate.
Director
Anton Corbijn (Control)
CAST
Helen Mirren • Alden Ehrenreich • Olivia Cooke • Juliet Stevenson
RATING
RUNTIME
1h 46m
COUNTRY
United Kingdom, Italy
GENRE
Biography, Crime, Psychological Thriller
LANGUAGE
English
WATCH TRAILER
FILM NOTES
A wickedly elegant battle of wits, sharpened by literary mischief and murderous possibility.
Adapted by Joanna Murray-Smith from her acclaimed play Switzerland, A Talent for Murder imagines Patricia Highsmith in 1995, living in seclusion among her books, cats and antique weapons. The arrival of publisher’s representative Edward Ridgeway disturbs her carefully guarded solitude, and his request for another Tom Ripley novel soon becomes an unsettling exercise in constructing the perfect crime.
Helen Mirren relishes Highsmith’s intelligence, mischief and formidable edge, while Alden Ehrenreich gives her visitor enough charm and mystery to keep every motive uncertain. Director Anton Corbijn brings cool visual precision to their increasingly dangerous exchange. Filled with biting dialogue, shifting loyalties and elegant twists, this is a richly entertaining psychological thriller for admirers of Highsmith and sophisticated games of cat and mouse.
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