Two Faces of January

A thriller centered on a con artist (Viggo Mortensen), his wife (Kirsten Dunst), and a stranger (Oscar Isaac) who flee Athens after one of them is caught up in the death of a private detective.

Not being familiar with the novel, I cannot really comment on if this is a good adaptation or not. But it definitely is not as good a film as it could be. Mostly because it starts out strong and remains strong for the first half hour before suddenly going flat and staying flat. If the film could have kept its earlier pace and tone, it would be an incredibly gripping thriller.

Kirsten Dunst is excellent and understated. Mortensen is not half bad as the con artist. But they seem trapped in this script that never fully allows them to show their potential.

I agree with an earlier reviewer that this film derives much of its effect from being set in 1962. The period feel is beautifully communicated and the plot needs to work itself out in a world where places like Athens, Crete and Istanbul were not just exotic but isolated, where holidaying Americans would still be surprised and interested to meet other Americans, and people on the run could hope to hide away. The chemistry between the three leads, who are all well played, does lack fizz and there is a clumsy and rather hackneyed third act. But the film is never less than engaging and all the better for not resorting to surprise twists. The music tries too hard to be exciting, almost as if the director thinks the visuals need some extraneous help to keep the audience interested. I think he is wrong - there is enough going on here, including some fine acting and cinematography, to appeal to audiences who like films with substance, a trajectory, and a sound sense of place and time.

It's 1962 Athens. Rydal (Oscar Isaac) is a tour guide charming and scamming his female visitors. He finds a mark in American couple Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife Colette (Kirsten Dunst). A man looking for Dunleavy intrudes into the couple's hotel room. He's been hired by MacFarland's former clients and pulls out a gun. The man is killed. While trying to dispose of the body, Rydal comes up to return a bracelet. Rydal gets pulled into the suspicious cover-up that Chester initially claims to be a drunk making a pass at Colette. Rydal tries to help them escape while skimming off the top.

This has the feel of 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' which is another novel from Patricia Highsmith. However there is a fun and audacity of the con that is missing. It has the Hitchcockian backbones but the story feels tired. Isaac is a bit detached playing it more like supporting role rather than the staring role this is supposed to be. Mortensen is smoking up a storm and has a bit of fun. Dunst is beautiful but her character is too clueless. I rather she not play the innocent. All the material seems to be here for a great psychological thriller but it comes together as more flat than exciting.

An old school, Hitchcockian style thriller from the writer behind Drive, The Two Faces of January commences with sexy, mysterious intrigue, but slowly dovetails into a soggy noodle. Shot against the glorious, sun-drenched Greek landscape by cinematographer Marcel Zyskind and boasting immaculate costume and set design befitting its 1960s period, January looks a million bucks, yet this can't cover up the fact the final hour is bland and devoid of tension. One of the finest (and underrated) actors of our generation, Oscar Isaac is once again astounding despite his failing surrounds, here portraying the smooth, enigmatic operator who gets in over his head when he witnesses a crime by an attractive American couple. As the wealthy tourists with a secret, Kirsten Dunst and Viggo Mortensen are another major weakness, the duo sharing zero spark together and Mortensen in particular possessing all the charisma of a plank of wood. It's a noble directorial debut from screenwriter Hossein Amini, but remains a missed opportunity in a subgenre not visited nearly enough.

Adapted by its director, Hossein Amini, from a little known novel by Patricia Highsmith "The Two Faces of January" turns out to be a highly satisfying tale of murder most foul very typical of Miss Highsmith. OK, so it's not on the same level as "The Talented Mr Ripley", "Plein Soleil" or "Strangers on a Train" but with its emphasis on plot rather than 'action' it's still a cut above a good many of today's so-called thrillers. Also typical of Highsmith is that the principal relationship in the film is between two men, (though one of them is married while the other starts to fall for the wife). The married one is Viggo Mortensen, apparently rich and touring Greece but also harboring a dark secret. The wife is pert little Kirsten Dunst and the man who falls for her is tour guide Oscar Issac. At first Issac thinks he has the upper hand, swindling Mortensen out of a few thousand dollars only to realize quite early in their relationship that he has bitten off more than he can chew. After awhile Dundst's character becomes almost redundant as the men start to play power games with each other. Whereas the male/male relationships in other Highsmith adaptations were mostly homo-erotic with at least one of the characters clearly drawn as gay. Here the relationship is meant to evoke a father and a son, (Issac's character has issues with his dead father). This slightly dilutes the dark heart of the picture. Movies like "The Talented Mr Ripley" and "Strangers on a Train" worked as well as they did because the villain was clearly homosexual and psychopathic and you never knew where his temper and jealous rages might take him. In this movie Mortensen is undoubtedly the jealous straight guy while Issac is just too nice, (he's too sweet to be a real con-man). Still, all three leading players are excellent and Amini tightens the screws very nicely as the film progresses. Filmed, for the most part, in Greece it will also prove something of a boost for the Greek Tourist Board this summer.