It is no easy feat bringing a novel to the big screen especially novels that depend almost entirely on the emotions and inner thoughts of the main characters. Certain aspects that could be entirely obvious in the novel can be lost in a film production. Without much dialogue, you must depend on how well the actors play the roles in questions, their touches, glances, everything down to how they look at someone. You depend on those actors’ ability to tell you that story, to convey that emotion from the book, to bring these characters to life.
Written by Patricia Highsmith, she of The Talented Mr. Ripley fame, the Two Faces of January revolves around an American con man, Chester MacFarland, who is on the run with his wife for accidentally killing a Greek policeman. The pair are helped on their journey by Rydal Keener who attempts to get the pair safely out of Greece and out of harm’s way. However, not everything goes according to plan and when Rydal discovers the full extent of what he is involved in, he attempts to get out. Although not the finest of Highsmith’s work, in essence The Two Faces of January should have really worked on the big screen.
The film adaptation follows essentially the same plot line. Viggo Mortensen plays MacFarland, a particularly smooth operator who has convinced his wife Colette, played by Dunst, that they are safe from all their troubles in Greece. Of course, they aren’t. Tracked down for their crimes, MacFarland is not only forced to confess to his wife the true extent of their problems, he also manages to accidentally murder the man that has hunted him down. With Rydal in tow, the pair leave Greece but their issues are far from over.
Although this is a particularly beautiful piece of cinema, that’s all there really is to it. The story, though engaging enough to keep you interested for most of the film, is quite dull and generally pretty lifeless. We should feel like Oscar Isaac’s Rydal would do anything for Colette, instead we feel like he is more intrigued by Chester. For three people on the run, the height of the emotion involves Colette running off a bus because she thinks she has been recognised, the rest of the film just plods along to the final conclusion, which is not only pretty convenient but quite predictable.
Having said that, the filming locations make the piece worthwhile for the most part and the camera is naturally drawn to the beautiful Dunst. With filming locations like Crete, Greece and Turkey, this really wasn’t very difficult to achieve however. There are throwbacks to old Hitchcock films and it certainly does feel like an Agatha Christie thriller but it is certainly a film you would curl up and watch on a rainy Sunday.
Not a film that will stay with you for very long time after you leave the cinema but a comfortable memory of old Hollywood, Two Faces is a Sunday daytime film at best.
