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A Talent for Murder, starring Helen Mirren and Alden Ehrenreich, directed by Anton Corbijn
Trailer: Bleecker Street / LD Entertainment
A Talent for Murder
Directed by Anton Corbijn
Rated R
Stabbed 23 October 2026
#ATalentForMurder
Helen Mirren slays it as Patricia Highsmith in this half-great thriller.
Unknown Caller
A Talent for Murder, based on screenwriter Joanna Murray-Smith’s own stage play, Switzerland, is a mostly fun ride through the murderous mind of Patricia Highsmith.
Smartly, an end title card clearly and without equivocation states the story is a totally fictional portrayal of the famed author of thrillers including the notoriously talented Mr. Ripley and his series of exploits. Highsmith also wrote the novel that inspired the Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train.
Highsmith really enjoyed killing people.
At least on paper.
And, as portrayed here and in real life, she wasn’t the most likeable person. She was – on so many accounts – a nasty person. A racist. An anti-Semite. But, giving credit where it’s due, at least she was an equal-opportunity hater. And, as she discusses her own childhood with Edward, Patricia really did have a horrible upbringing with a borderline demonic mother who abused her every which way. At one point, her own mother admitted she attempted to have Patricia aborted. By drinking turpentine.
Horrible.
Working with her in light of all that? Obviously, that’d be a difficult challenge requiring a set of skills and traits most people don’t possess. Patience, sure. Eloquent communication, definitely. Some grace couldn’t hurt. Tolerance in the extreme.
And therein the fiction begins.
It’s a beautiful day in 1995 Switzerland.
Miserable ol’ Patricia is in her secluded home, which she shares with her favorite companions: snails. (Apparently true!) She’s staring out the window while smoking a cigarette. Her typewriter, sitting atop her desk, seems to be taunting her and her writer’s block.
A guest arrives. It’s meek and bespectacled Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehernreich), an editor representing her publisher and carrying with him a curious collection of items she requested. Some notebooks, a few cans of soup, a stack of white Brooks Brothers shirts.
And the pièce de résistance: a knife. A really beautiful knife.
Plus, Edward brings some bonus gifts, of sorts. A colorful bouquet of flowers and a new contract for a new Ripley novel.
The one she doesn’t want to write.
No Line on the Horizon
The first half of A Talent for Murder is impressive on many levels. Of course, Mirren is something to behold in her rough and tough portrayal of Patricia. As with the best of the movies that recreate real-life people, Mirren disappears into the appearance and aesthetics of Highsmith.
And Ehrenreich’s right there with her as he builds out a seemingly sympathetic character. He’s there because nobody else dared to volunteer. Patricia allegedly drove the previous editor mad. Truly, deeply mad.
Their initially adversarial relationship works. Really well. It’s also credible how Edward builds trust with the misanthropic Patricia by being able to cite the Ripley novel for any given passage she reads.
Director Anton Corbijn, who’s also helmed A Most Wanted Man (with Philip Seymour Hoffman) and The American (with George Clooney) and who is U2’s long-time favorite photographer, does a great job establishing Patricia’s environment. It’s creepy all over, with lots of toxic substances – including arsenic – in the pantry and sitting right next to freshly prepared food.
Don’t touch anything, Patricia advises Edward. Especially all those “trophy” guns on the wall.
That initial psychological drama riddled with mind games includes a snail placed on Edward’s bed. And he awakes to some sort of nasty gash on his neck. Having Patricia Highsmith of all people serve as a jump scare is delightful. Yeah. It’s even “novel.”
But, as part of the setup, Edward meets a young woman, Clementine Harriet Balfour (Olivia Cooke) on his Swiss train ride. Great. They’re strangers on a train. It’s a meet-cute-in-a-thriller scene (knowingly piling it on, she’s even reading Colin Wilson’s The Outsider). But their relationship never wholly gels. And it’s their relationship that grows to dominate the weaker second half of the movie.
Moment of Surrender
Murray-Smith excels with Highsmith and it’s fun watching Edward and Patricia plan out the next Ripley book. But Murray-Smith goes a little sideways as she threads a thriller within this thriller that in turn takes a stab at a twist ending.
Edward’s courtship of Clementine is too abrupt and not credibly established. Enough time is spent establishing Edward as a sort of protagonist facing the challenges of working with Patricia, but not enough time is spent bringing Clementine to life. It’s not on Cooke; she’s fine. It’s the writing that falls short.
On the cinematic side, as Murray-Smith journeys down a rabbit hole with Edward, Corbijn gets to film a classic psychological moment in a rich family’s bathroom. It’s well done. While he expresses his very real frustrations in the main mirror, there’s a makeup mirror distorting Edward’s face in one portion of the screen, effectively pulling his inner turmoil to the surface. It’s a growing swirl of frustrations that leads to a brief mental break. The movie overall might’ve been better served with more of those dark moments as Edward’s character goes through personality shifts.
Certainly, more of that strain would’ve helped the movie “stick it” with its semi-trick ending. It’s a layered approach that attempts to merge two fictional storylines into one sort of reality.
• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.
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