Patricia Highsmith wrote novels about deception, murder, and the thin line between charm and evil. Now she is the star of her own story, and the result is A Talent for Murder, a thriller that turns the author herself into the villain. The film is adapted from Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith’s play Switzerland, and it imagines what happens when Highsmith’s biggest fan gets the chance to meet his hero.
The setup is simple. Edward Ridgeway, played by Tony winner Alden Ehrenreich, is a handsome young man on a train through Switzerland. He is tasked with getting Highsmith to sign a contract for a sixth Ripley novel. Along the way, he meets Clementine Harriet Balfour, played by Olivia Cooke, a pretty heiress visiting a miserly dowager aunt. They cross paths in a small Swiss village, and the film sets up a trap that director Anton Corbijn expertly lays out.
But the real engine of the story is the meeting between Edward and Highsmith. The author, played by Helen Mirren, is a deranged delight. She is a recluse who has poisoned a neighbor’s dog for barking too much, and she is rumored to have driven an American man mad enough to flee her home in his pajamas. She dresses in men’s slacks, a crisp shirt, a cravat and vest, paired with a fuck-off bob. When Edward arrives eager with compliments and gifts, Mirren regards him with such disdain that the Toronto International Film Festival audience gasped and guffawed.
Mirren’s Cruel Highsmith
Mirren is a career veteran with a range that spans Shakespeare, Prime Suspect, and Queen Elizabeth II. She has played a Fast and Furious baddie and a sultry spy in The Thursday Murder Club. But there is no lightness in this performance. In 1995, atop a Swiss mountain, Highsmith is an eccentric recluse who irons a shirt while she waits for visitors. When Edward appears, Mirren’s disdain is so sharp that the audience reacts.
“The ruthless wit of the Ripley novels is sharply replicated in Murray-Smith’s screenplay, and Mirren makes the most of every line, savoring the sharp barbs.”
The film leans into the cruel intelligence of Highsmith’s writing. Mirren delivers each line with relish, and the audience watches her enjoy the torture she dishes out. Ehrenreich, to his credit, does not blink. If he had failed to match her onscreen, the film would collapse. Instead, it is a twisted thrill: sexy, salty, and wickedly fun.
Ehrenreich’s Slippery Charm
Ehrenreich earned a Tony award earlier this year for his performance in the Broadway revival of Becky Shaw. That stage work shows a young man from a family with no means and no reputation, cozying up to a wealthy family to enter their world and rule it. In A Talent for Murder, Edward shares that background. He comes from nothing, and he is determined to climb.
At first, Edward looks like Matt Damon’s version of Tom Ripley from the 1999 adaptation The Talented Mr. Ripley. His hair is floppy but fashionable, his smile is earnest but awkward, and his glasses are a perfect twin. This is intentional. Corbijn wants Highsmith fans to wonder if this eager social climber might have the root of evil in him, which could make Highsmith’s criminal mastermind real.
The film does not cast Edward as a rube. He comes ready to impress Highsmith, even if that means telling her twisted tales from his past. The screenplay entices him with the possibility of criminally corrupting him. The two begin to collaborate on a murder mystery about a blue-collar boy who meets an old-money girl and determines to make her family fortune his own. Their thought experiment gets joltingly real as Highsmith haunts him at night and inspires him to treat the reckless heiress Clementine as source material.
In these sections, Ehrenreich has the smoothness of Ripley. His confidence is edged with a misanthropic disgust at all who are not as clever and calculating as he. But as Edward, he trembles with insecurity, particularly in a scene where he is called out by an Irish lady named Brid Brennan, who spots him as an outsider from his shoes alone. The contrast between the confident con man and the trembling outsider is the film’s engine.
Cooke Holds Her Own
Clementine is the third leg of the triangle. She is a pretty heiress with a bouncy brunette bob and a fashion sense that hints at old-money family and independent ambitions. She is visiting her miserly dowager aunt, played by Juliet Stevenson. In the imagined version of the story, she is a yearning virgin. In the real one, she is a spoiled rich girl looking for a cheap thrill. Cooke brings a full-blooded verve to both versions, refusing to let her character become a prop in the larger game.
Together, the trio weaves a tale of sex, death, and desire that touches on the best of Highsmith’s works without feeling like a shallow retread. The film plays like a superb fan fiction, imagining the inner world and grisly desires of the seminal author without idolizing her or whitewashing her well-documented defects.
The Trap That Works
Corbijn lays out a spring-loaded trap that captures the interest of Highsmith fans. A handsome couple flirts while wealth and opportunity glitter on the horizon. The film knows exactly what it is doing. It borrows the tropes of Highsmith’s work — the social climbing, the casual cruelty, the erotic tension — and puts them in service of a story about the author herself.
The collaboration between Edward and Highsmith blurs what is real and imagined in pursuit of bringing fresh blood to Highsmith’s typewriter. It would not work if Ehrenreich were not on fire. Where Mirren is delicious in her snarling cruelty, Ehrenreich is intriguing in his slipperiness. The two performances together create a dynamic that keeps the film from becoming a dull tribute.
Platforms and Where to Watch
The film is available on three major streaming services:
- HBO Max, top pick for premium content
- Disney+, best for families
- Hulu, popular choice for originals
Each platform offers its own strengths. HBO Max is the top pick for premium content. Disney+ is best for families. Hulu is popular for originals. The film stands on its own regardless of where you stream it.
The Verdict
A Talent for Murder succeeds because it trusts its actors. Mirren delivers a performance that is a deranged delight, and Ehrenreich matches her step for step. The film is a twisted thrill: sexy, salty, and wickedly fun. It is a sharp, smart take on Highsmith’s world that respects the source material without being trapped by it.
The film is a triumph of casting and direction. Mirren is a deranged delight, and Ehrenreich is a hot and bothered young man who deserves the attention. Together, they make a thriller that lives up to the legacy of the author whose name the film carries.
Source material: “A Talent for Murder review: Alden Ehrenreich gives sexy menace in this Patricia Highsmith-inspired thriller,” Mashable.
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