A Talent For Murder Review: Helen Mirren Leads A Mind-Bending, But Rather Thrill-Less, Thriller [TIFF]

A Talent for Murder lacks the thrills of a great chamber thriller, but its cerebral final act makes for a surprisingly mind-bending watch.

Published Sep 16, 2026, 8:09 AM EDT

George is a film critic and journalist with over nine years of experience in the entertainment industry. Beginning as the Co-Creator and Co-Editor of Star Wars Holocron, the most followed Star Wars fan account on Twitter/X, George went on to develop The HoloFiles, a movie and television-focused website with his brother and writing partner Josh.

A member of the Hollywood Creative Alliance, Chicago Indie Critics, Online Film and Television Association, and the Internet Film Critic Society, George has covered major industry events as credentialed media, including D23, CinemaCon, SXSW, Fantastic Fest, Star Wars Celebration, Tribeca Festival, and more. He also regularly writes reviews and contributes articles to ScreenAnarchy, BRWC, Film Obsessive, TV Obsessive, and Under the Radar. George's work has been featured in various esteemed publications, including the BBC, Associated Press, Forbes, and The New York Times.

There’s something both cozy and nail-biting about chamber thrillers. Containing intimate, intense stories to a single location amplifies the impact of every character decision, and raw dialogue is capable of creating incredible suspense, tension, and psychological claustrophobia. Over the years, the likes of Dial M for Murder, Deathtrap, and Sleuth have been among the films to effectively maximize the inherent tension of a chamber thriller, with tantalizing back-and-forths serving as the backdrop for winding, often unpredictable tales of deception, immorality, and murder. A Talent for Murder, while bolstering a clever story-within-a-story premise, miscalculates the mechanics of a compelling chamber thriller and ends up being more meditative than riveting.

Making its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, A Talent for Murder stars Alden Ehrenreich as Edward Ridgeway, a publishing consultant sent to remote Switzerland to convince eccentric and antagonistic author Patricia Highsmith (Helen Mirren) to write a sixth and final novel in her beloved Tom Ripley series. Highsmith is initially reluctant to engage with Ridgeway, but eventually becomes more willing to sign the contract as she and the young man start to work out the details of a final Ripley story with a number of parallels to Ridgeway’s real life.

A Talent For Murder Lacks A Chamber Thriller's Most Essential Element

Courtesy Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment

A Talent for Murder has all the ingredients of a compelling chamber thriller, yet never quite comes together in the way director Anton Corbijn intends. Adapted from the stage play Switzerland by Joanna Murray-Smith, the film impressively cultivates the atmosphere of some of the aforementioned titles. The geography is cozy; the music is suspenseful; and the back-and-forth between two characters contained to a single location is appropriately tense.

After a lengthy set-up that moves at a snail’s pace (those who know of Highsmith’s strange hobby will understand this reference), A Talent for Murder bifurcates into a story within a story. The Ripley story that Highsmith and Ridgeway discuss begins to play out on screen, with Ridgeway cast in the lead role. This section of the film plays much like a short film adaptation of a Ripley novel, although, because the audience knows it is merely a story conjured by two people, it lacks effective stakes and suspense.

Issues delivering the very thing that thrillers are meant to deliver (i.e., thrills) reverberate through Corbijn’s film. A modicum of tension is initially created in the scenes between Ehrenreich and Mirren involving a potentially poisoned meal, a mysterious cut to the neck in the middle of the night, and a missing American, but the film quickly pumps the brakes on this suspense and intrigue. The heightened score is suggestive of a far more thrilling and ominous movie than what Corbijn actually creates, which is surprisingly flat in the cat-and-mouse battle between its two main characters. They do a lot of talking about murder and scheming, but never does one actually believe that either is capable of putting all this talk into action.

A Talent For Murder's Real Talent Is Mind-Bending

Courtesy of Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment

While still disappointing as a chamber thriller, A Talent for Murder comes to life in a final act that addresses Highsmith’s relationships with herself and Ripley, her most famous literary creation. Exploring the antagonism masking psychic pain and the actual bonds people can create with fictional characters finally gives the film much-needed energy, although this is more cerebral than visceral.

Ehrenreich’s character, meanwhile, goes on a journey of his own. Meek and soft-spoken, Ridgeway begins to mirror Ripley in similarly adopting a new identity or, as one character says, doing the quintessentially American thing and recasting himself in whatever role he chooses. Although his journey is less interesting than Highsmith’s, together they leave the audience with delectable questions to feast on.

A Talent for Murder is the kind of film that, like Memento or Enemy, makes one wonder what actually happened and try to pinpoint the line between fiction and reality. Corbijn’s film may not provoke the thrills it intends, yet it surprisingly makes for more thought-provoking viewing than one may initially expect. It may not have a talent for intrigue and tension, but it does have a talent for contemplation and mind-bending, and, as such, makes for a worthwhile watch.

A Talent for Murder premiered at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is scheduled to release in U.S. theaters on October 23.