Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac, Kirsten Dunst, David Warshofsky, Daisy Bevan, Yigit Özsener, Nikos Mavrakis, Prometheus Aleifer, Ozan Tas, Socrates Alafouzos, James Sobol Kelly, Evgenia Dimitropoulou, Omiros Poulakis, Brian Niblett, Mehmet Esen, Pablo Verdejo, Okan Avci, Kosta Kortidis, Karayianni Margaux, Peter Mair.
The Two Faces of January is a film in which the tension, fuelled by the appearances of unrivalled brinkmanship and matchless testosterone, excels. It delves into the culture of violence briefly but that is the point, it is an intelligent enough adaptation to realise that films don’t need to go down the route of overwhelming forceful aggression to make it worth watching. The violence that happens is more through circumstance of two men caught in a trap of their own making and of jealousy. The prize is not just freedom in the end it seems.
Capturing the work of Patricia Highsmith used to have to be tackled by the true British master of cinema Alfred Hitchcock, at least now, with a screenplay by Ossein Amini, her work gets a much needed and very demanding airing for the 21st Century.
When you are on the run for having embezzled a large sum of money from your investors, the constant looking over your shoulder would be enough to send the most ordinary of men into the arms of perpetual despair. However for Chester MacFarland his every fear is consumed with losing his much younger wife Collette, especially when young American tour guide Rydal shows much too much interest in her.
Viggo Mortensen gives a powerful display as Chester MacFarland, portraying the true ideal for cinema audiences of a man they want to see fail in his escape and get caught but also relishing the slow unwinding of a man who is unravelling before their eyes. It is though Oscar Isaac who makes the screen glow with the heat of the Greek sun, after giving such an admirable performance in Inside Llewyn Davis, he continues the excellent form as the young hustler who finds himself out of his depth and having to trust a man you wouldn’t cross the street to save. Both Mortensen and Isaac’s give tension and fear a new avenue of acting approach and the way they make the near ordinary feel claustrophobic and utterly intense is compelling viewing.
The Two Faces Of January is a surprising hit which might by-pass the multitude but is a return to a good old fashioned thriller.
Ian D. Hall