The Two Faces of January

Athens in 1962. For two years now, American Rydal (Oscar Isaac) has been living in Greece and barely keeping his head above water as a tour guide, while also repeatedly using his charm and occasionally even small scams. When Rydal meets married couple Colette (Kirsten Dunst) and Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen), he is immediately intrigued by their sophisticated appearance and apparently very luxurious lifestyle. But when Rydal visits the couple after a night out together at their hotel, he is forced to realize that the beautiful appearances are deceptive. And before he knows it, he is caught in a web of murder, deceit, and jealousy that threatens to pull him ever closer to the abyss.

The Two Faces of January is the adaptation of the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith, whose books have provided the template for suspenseful hit films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Alfred Hitchcock's classic The Stranger on the Train. The title refers to the two faces of the god Janus, one looking to the past, the other to the future. Two faces, then, looking in opposite directions, symbolic of the opaque relationship between Chester and Rydal. Previously known primarily for his work as a screenwriter (Drive, Snow White and the Huntsman), Hossein Amini was so taken with the story, which focuses heavily on dealing with human frailties, that he was eager to direct it as his directorial debut.

The result is a very unexciting, nobly filmed and very well acted thriller, but one that feels very dated overall. Apart from the actors, nothing in this film suggests that it was made in 2014. The pacing, music, dialogue - it all feels like what you'd expect from classic crime fare from the 50s and 60s. That's not to say the film is bad. It's just that in this way it eludes a bit the common viewing habits of a modern cinema audience. If you don't have a soft spot for more traditional cinema fare anyway, you might well find the very dialogue-heavy goings-on boring, as the tension arises less from the actions of the characters than from the psychological level of the story.

The flick, shot on original locations in Greece and Turkey, has a very special flair in which the story and also the actors can unfold very well. When Chester's perfectly planned situation slips more and more out of his fingers and he loses more and more his cultivated composure, Viggo Mortensen is at his best. But also Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) is fully convincing as a small-time con man who gets dragged into a much bigger affair against his will. Alongside these two strong performers, Kirsten Dunst remains a little pale in her rather thankless role, but is still able to bring out the best in this one-dimensionally drawn character. It is thanks to the beautiful, very atmospheric settings and the actors that The Two Faces of January is able to extricate itself from mediocrity.

Because the story itself is relatively lacking in surprises, very contrived and all too conventionally told. Amini's passion project unfortunately doesn't come close to the finesse that Hitchcock or Anthony Minghella displayed in their Highsmith adaptations. Since some scenes turn out too tough, it's very hard to build up real tension despite the very coherent heaviness. Moreover, the characters remain rather inaccessible, which has a negative effect especially on the plot progression in the second half of the film. So, all in all, The Two Faces of January is a decent, but not really gripping thriller, which can fully convince on the visual and acting, but not on the dramaturgical level. However, those who love beautifully filmed old-school psycho-dramas will get their money's worth here. And in this case then also a satisfied: Worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp