A Talent for Murder review – Helen Mirren is a viperous Patricia Highsmith in hit-and-miss thriller

At the Toronto Film Festival, A Talent for Murder presents a fictionalized account of the notoriously difficult crime writer Patricia Highsmith, portrayed by Helen Mirren. In the film, Highsmith devises a murder plot with an ambitious editor, but the narrative ultimately lacks the sharpness it requires.

The pandemic-era restrictions on production led to a surge in contained chamber-piece films, typically featuring a small cast trapped in remote locations where dialogue supersedes action. While the genre produced notable successes like Kevin Williamson’s timely slasher Sick, it also suffered through significant misfires such as Sam Levinson’s Malcolm & Marie. Despite the volume of such releases, none have matched the quality of the finest pre-pandemic examples.

The most effective entries in this subgenre often drew from stage plays and frequently featured Michael Caine. This includes Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth, which achieved both Tony and Oscar success in the 1970s, and the subsequent Deathtrap, adapted by Sidney Lumet from Ira Levin’s intricately plotted play. There was also the lesser-known TV movie One of My Wives Is Missing, based on the 1960s play Trap for a Single Man; while inferior, it still delivered a similar brand of twisting, dialogue-heavy thrills.

These stories typically involve secrets, surprises, reversals, and at least one corpse by the finale, a tradition deeply indebted to Agatha Christie. Christie reportedly admired Sleuth so much on stage that she dedicated a photograph of herself to be hung in the house used for the film adaptation. Consequently, the bar for such films is set high, demanding ingenious writing that is clever without being smug and shocking without feeling contrived.