In “A Talent for Murder,” director Anton Corbijn takes a closer look at writer Patricia Highsmith. Known for creating everyone’s favorite psychopath Tom Ripley, Highsmith – played by Helen Mirren – became a controversial figure because of her antisemitic and misanthropic statements. You don’t want her to be completely unlikable.
It’s difficult when you don’t actually know the person and base everything on hearsay, but she was a very difficult woman. Also to herself,” he tells Variety. He enjoyed seeing Mirren, now in her 80s, fully embrace the role of someone who can be, well, a jerk.
It’s never too late to be a bitch. I’m referring to our Highsmith, of course. Luckily, she only killed fictional characters.” In the film, previously known as “Switzerland” after Joanna Murray-Smith’s play it’s based on – “I thought it would conjure too many images of cows and mountains,” Corbijn says – Highsmith is joined in her Swiss refuge by a young man, Edward (Alden Ehrenreich), who tries to persuade her to write another novel about Ripley.
They don’t exactly bring out the best in each other. Unfortunately, it’s always further than you’d like to think. Sometimes it has to do with generational trauma that manifests itself, or with human curiosity that leads to certain behaviors.
I think it happens quite often: People get curious, and they go too far. That might be the case with Ripley, too.” Ripley is evil, but he doesn’t look it. In “The American Friend,” “The Talented Mr.
Ripley” or Netflix’s show “Ripley,” he knows how to charm his victims. That’s his strength, and I think that’s the strength of the film. You don’t know if you should like them or not,” notes Corbijn.
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