A Talent for Murder Review: Helen Mirren Is a Bitter, Brilliant Patricia Highsmith

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A Talent for Murder (2026) Review: Helen Mirren Thriller

Patricia Highsmith wrote five novels about Tom Ripley, the charming con man who lies, steals, and kills his way into a better life. The books made her famous. A Talent for Murder imagines what might have happened if someone had come to her door in her final years and asked for a sixth. It’s a literary thriller about a writer, a fan, and the monster they both can’t let go of.

Anton Corbijn directs, in his first fiction feature in more than a decade. He’s the filmmaker behind Control and A Most Wanted Man, and he has a knack for cool, ambient, quietly stylish films. The screenplay is by Joanna Murray-Smith, adapted from her play Switzerland. After its premiere as a Gala presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film opens in US theaters on October 23, 2026, through Bleecker Street. It arrives in the UK on November 20.

The Story: A Young Editor at the Door

It’s 1995, and Highsmith, played by Helen Mirren, lives in exile in Switzerland. She’s old, ill, and smoking constantly, and she’s turned bitter and reclusive. Then Edward Ridgeway, played by Alden Ehrenreich, turns up. He’s a young man sent by her New York publisher with one mission: persuade her to write one final Ripley novel.

Edward is polite, eager, and a little nervous. Patricia is sharp-tongued and doesn’t want him there. But the more time they spend together, the more strange the situation becomes. His charm starts to look calculated, his motives become harder to read, and what begins as a business visit slowly turns sinister. Olivia Cooke plays Clementine Balfour, a figure in Edward’s story, while Juliet Stevenson, Brid Brennan, and James Faulkner round out the cast.

As the film continues, it moves in a self-aware, meta direction. The line between what’s real and what Patricia might be imagining begins to blur, and the story starts to wonder whether the whole encounter might be something Highsmith herself invented. To avoid spoilers, it’s best to say only that the film is as interested in identity and fiction as it is in plot.

Helen Mirren and Alden Ehrenreich Carry the Film

Mirren is the main attraction, and she’s superb. Her Highsmith is prickly, precise, and caustically funny. She delivers insults with a crisp, cold timing, and she makes the writer’s bitterness feel earned instead of cartoonish. The film doesn’t try to be a biography of the real woman, but it captures a spirit of misanthropy and brilliance that feels true to her reputation.

Ehrenreich has the harder task. Edward has to look like an eager, slightly nervous literary agent, and the film wants him to resemble Ripley himself, a social chameleon who can reshape himself to suit whoever is in front of him. Ehrenreich does it with small adjustments. Small shifts in how he stands, speaks, and dresses are enough to move him from timid to menacing. It’s a subtle, clever performance, and it makes you wonder what he’s capable of. A few scenes toward the film’s more experimental stretches ask a lot of him, and he doesn’t always seem comfortable there.

Cooke brings a gentle, naive quality to Clementine, and each of the three leads seems to channel archetypes from Highsmith’s own books. Together they give the film its mood: wary, elegant, and a little dangerous.

A Cold, Beautiful Look

The visual style is one of the film’s best features. Production designer Dimitri Capuani turns Highsmith’s house into a character of its own, with dated pine paneling and nicotine-stained papers that suggest a woman still living in a past that was never as glamorous as she remembers. It feels stuffy, a bit sad, and very lived in.

The film’s wintry palette and modern European elegance recall Corbijn’s earlier thriller The American. Everything is cool, quiet, and carefully composed. Andrew Hulme edited the film, and its slow, deliberate rhythm suits the story. Corbijn favors atmosphere over fast pacing, which gives the movie a slow-burn feel.

Where It Falls Short

The biggest question is whether the film delivers enough tension. It’s built like a chamber thriller, with two people in a room and a battle of wills between them. But the payoff doesn’t always match the setup. The script gives Mirren relatively few cutting lines, and the film spends a lot of time on Edward’s interactions with Clementine, which pulls the focus away from the central duel. By the time the story returns to Patricia and Edward, the conclusion can feel less crackling than the premise promised.

The film’s cleverness can also become a weakness. The meta twists are interesting, but they come at the cost of momentum, and the movie ends up more meditative than gripping. Some viewers will enjoy the puzzle. Others may find it cold. The runtime is 106 minutes, which is lean, but the pace is deliberate.

The Verdict

A Talent for Murder is a stylish, intelligent, and slightly chilly thriller with a standout performance from Mirren and a smart, slippery turn from Ehrenreich. It’s beautiful to look at and full of clever ideas about fiction and identity. It doesn’t quite draw blood, but for fans of literary noir, it’s well worth a visit.

Rating: 3.5/5

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Quick Facts

Title: A Talent for Murder (originally titled Switzerland)
Director: Anton Corbijn
Writer: Joanna Murray-Smith, adapted from her play Switzerland
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Literary Noir
Runtime: 1h 46m (106 minutes)
Rated: R
Starring: Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich, Olivia Cooke, Juliet Stevenson, Brid Brennan, James Faulkner
Production design: Dimitri Capuani
Editor: Andrew Hulme
Production companies: LD Entertainment, Brouhaha Entertainment, Lunar Pictures, Lucky Red
Distributor: Bleecker Street (US)
Premiere: Toronto International Film Festival 2026 (Gala Presentations)
Release dates: US, October 23, 2026. UK, November 20, 2026.