Alden Ehrenreich gets to play one of the most essential characters of the 20th century, Tom Ripley, in Anton Corbijn’s “A Talent for Murder,” without actually playing Tom Ripley. Adapted by Joanna Murray-Smith from her play Switzerland, Corbijn’s film isn’t directly based on the novels by Patricia Highsmith as much inspired by them. It’s almost like one of many new stories set in familiar universes from FX’s “Fargo” to even “Alien: Romulus”: “inspired by” not “adapted from.” It’s a project that clearly adores Highsmith and her elegant murders but doesn’t quite solve the mystery of how to replicate what she did so well. It’s not just book snobs who will sense something a bit off. Anyone who has seen the masterful “Purple Noon” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” or even Netflix’s incredible “Ripley,” will agree that this is a bit closer to fan fiction that something Highsmith herself would have delivered or even approved of. There are just enough moments of suave mystery to keep it engaging, but it’s ultimately the thing that Highsmith almost never was: Forgettable.
Ehrenreich actually plays a book agent named Edward Ridgeway, who has been tasked with taking a train deep into the Swiss Alps to the remote home of one of the most famous authors in the history of the written word: Patricia Highsmith (Helen Mirren). On his way through the mountains, Edward meets a beautiful young woman named Clementine Harriet Balfour (Olivia Cooke), and the strangers on a train have a flirtatious connection. He tells her that his job is to convince Highsmith to write a sixth Ripley novel. In reality, Highsmith’s last novel, Small g: a Summer Idyll had been rejected by her publisher. Murray-Smith basically uses this real moment in history—when a struggling Highsmith could conceivably have been talked into returning to Ripley one last time—to craft a battle of wills between a character representing the business of literature and one of its most important figures.
Of course, Ridgeway has heard all the stories. Highsmith is more than just a mere eccentric—the last book agent sent to her home thought she might be planning to murder him. She has a collection of knives and guns displayed on the wall, and they might even be loaded. At first, it seems like “A Talent for Murder” may just be a story of a crazy old spider who torments the flies that stumble into her web, but Ridgeway’s name is remarkably close to Ripley for a reason. He has a few surprises as well, including a love for the mysteries shaped by Highsmith.
The two essentially play a literary game in which they concoct an outline for a new Ripley, which allows Ehrenreich to ditch the bookworm look for that of Ripley himself, and to even cast the pretty woman from the train as his target. Well, actually his target is her family fortune, forcing him to woo her and eliminate the heirs to a massive estate that stand in his way. Ehrenreich and Cooke are fun and sexy in this movie-within-a-movie, but here’s one of the places where “A Talent for Murder” falters. The main problem is that half of a 109-minute movie isn’t nearly enough time to set the mood for a Faux Ripley tale, which forces Murray-Smith and Corbijn to rush through the mechanics on their way to a challenge of a climax: Highsmith tells Ridgeway that if he can devise a masterful final murder, she’ll write the book. The movie thinks he does; I’m unconvinced.
It’s indicative of the double-edged sword that hangs over this film. It works because of the strength of its inspirations, but it also can’t get out of those shadows. As a dialogue-heavy performance anchored by three strong actors, it can be fun enough on those simple terms. As a nod to one of the best mystery writers ever and her most famous creation? It comes up short.
It doesn’t help that “A Talent for Murder” also refuses to be the chamber piece it’s clearly meant to be, and ditches a lot of the claustrophobia that almost certainly made it more effective on stage. Ridgeway goes into town and runs into the real Clementine again, beginning a romance that mirrors the one in the fiction he’s drafting with Highsmith. Sure, this allows for gorgeous scenery, costume design, and genuine chemistry between Cooke and Ehrenreich, but it feels like a distraction, and it ends up sidelining Mirren for long stretches of the proceedings.
It’s just another place in which “A Talent for Murder” can’t quite figure out what movie it wants to be, which could be an ambitious homage to a writer that often blurred genre lines, or it could just be sloppy writing. Solving that mystery is up to you.
This review was filed from the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. It opens on October 23, 2026.
