Helen Mirren brings fictionalised Patricia Highsmith tale to Toronto
Helen Mirren has arrived at the Toronto International Film Festival with a thriller about author Patricia Highsmith built around a crime that never happened.
A Talent for Murder stars Mirren as Highsmith, with Alden Ehrenreich, Olivia Cooke and Juliet Stevenson in support, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It is directed by Anton Corbijn and written by Joanna Murray-Smith. The film played in Gala Presentations, the festival's showcase for high-profile titles, and runs 1 hour 46 minutes with an R rating, which restricts cinema admission in the United States for viewers under 17 unless accompanied by an adult.
The murder is invented. The writer is real.
The screenplay was expanded by Murray-Smith from her two-person theatre play Switzerland. Ehrenreich plays Edward Ridgeway, a representative from Highsmith's New York publisher who visits her. Cooke plays a character named Clementine. Beyond Highsmith herself, the story shown on screen is entirely made up and is not true to her life.
TIFF describes the film as a chamber thriller, meaning a small cast in a confined setting, according to TIFF. That structure stays close to the play's origins. Two people in a room. Secrets under pressure.
Mirren has said the part stretched her more than other real-life roles she has played, calling Highsmith her most difficult real-life role during the festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Highsmith is known to readers as the author behind psychological crime fiction. The film does not attempt to retell her biography.
The premiere also brought Mirren an honour off screen. She received the Groundbreaker Award at the Toronto Film Festival Tribute Awards while bringing A Talent for Murder to Toronto, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film had its world premiere in Toronto.
What makes this stand out for festival watchers is the device itself. A real author is placed inside a fictionalised plot, so audiences meet Highsmith the character rather than Highsmith the life story.
