The Two Faces of January (2014)

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This movie seemed promising but was seriously a waste of time. Not to mention the awful historical research.

Set in 1960s Greece, the plot of this oddly titled film involves a small-time con artist who gets more than he bargained for after posing as tour guide for a vacationing American couple. Based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, the film opened to mixed reviews with many expecting another 'Strangers on a Train' or 'The Talented Mr. Ripley', but it is decent stuff when viewed on its own terms. The crux of the film is the tension that exists between the two male leads and how their relationship changes. This tension is initially borne from the con artist's fascination with the other's much younger wife, but a series of twists and turns places them in an uneasy position where they have to rely on each other's discretion. At the same time, power shifts between them with an initial surrogate father/son relationship evolving into much more. Location is just as important as plot here though with the film making the most of the eerie old buildings and ancient ruins. Alberto Iglesias also supplies a characteristically atmospheric score and there is little flawing Oscar Isaac and Viggo Mortensen's acting. The film could have benefited from more in the way of thrills and suspense; the paranoia in the air does not always come out and an airport security scene aside, the characters never seem in much danger. As mentioned though, this is more of a film about the dynamics between the two protagonists who are more alike than either would want to believe; as one mentions, they would not be in their predicament were it not for the fact they have both have a touch of larceny in their veins.

If it weren't so well filmed on location in Greece and a couple other photogenic European locales, I would probably only be rating this film around a 5. I was expecting a thriller, but instead it's more along the lines of a series of unfortunate events, although the story does keep moving in an unpredictable direction. The trailer to this film, however, is totally misleading and sells it as something much more like "The Talented Mr. Ripley", which was a very sophisticated and skillfully plotted thriller and also totally different from this movie. I'm guessing that a lot of people will find this film to be on the slow side, but that appealed to me personally, at least on the night I happened to watch it. In any event, I thought that it was worth the time for the scenery alone.

*possible SPOILER* I watched this off Netflix with some family over the weekend, and despite some good performances and beautiful scenery, the film's "denouement" left something to be desired. Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel (the "Mr. Ripley" series), Viggo Mortensen stars as an American in Greece married to a much younger woman (Kirsten Dunst), who develop a love triangle with a young American traveling abroad.Now, at first, I thought Mortensen was actually conning the young guy, but then as the film went on, it seemed maybe the other way around- all leading to a very unsatisfactory ending. I know this movie has been referred to as "Hitchcockian" on more than one occasion-??- well..Alfred Hitchcock would've given us a better ending...