Crime writer Patricia Highsmith’s work has lent itself to several notable cinematic adaptations, and two of the best-known – Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley – are both masterclass examples of the thriller genre. Unlikely to join their esteemed company is The Two Faces of January, the latest Highsmith novel to hit the big screen.
The film opens promisingly, and the ingredients are there for a crackerjack suspenser. You’ve got a post-war noir figure in Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen), a New York businessman who’s scooted off to Greece with a suitcase of money that doesn’t belong to him; his pretty young trophy wife Colette (Kirsten Dunst) who’s enjoying the spoils of his swindling; and Rydal Keener (Oscar Isaac), a dark, handsome mysterious tour guide/con artist who threatens to drive a wedge between them.
Long-time screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive) displays a degree of airy, old-fashioned elegance in his first directorial outing, obviously content to luxuriate in the seductive, crisply photographed ‘60s-period Mediterranean locale while the plot escalates around the characters. It’s diverting enough if you’re fond of the genre, with the requisite genre staples catered to, including sudden, accidental bouts of violence, on-the-lam frissons and sneaky frame-ups. But it’s also too undercooked character-wise to match the psychological prickliness of the Hitchcock or Minghella films: the flirtatious chemistry between Colette and Rydal doesn’t come alive, and Rydal’s estranged-father backstory strains to find an emotionally satisfying parallel with Chester.
‘The Two Faces of January’ Movie Times
