The Two Faces of January -
Taking place in beautiful, sun-kissed Greece, our guide in
The Two Faces of January - literally and figuratively - is tour guide and American ex-patriate Rydal (Oscar Isaac), who's on the outs with his family, having skipped his dad's funeral. Hardly the trustworthy type, he uses his good looks to woo his mostly American, college-aged female customers and his fluency in Greek to swindle them at the local bazaar. Rydal befriends married couple Chester and Colette (Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst) - partly due to Chester reminding him of his dad - and soon learns they're as shady as himself. Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, he becomes their ticket to safety and perhaps his next mark.
This movie lends credence to the argument that the best acting occurs in confined spaces. Proving that they're not just movie stars, sparks fly whenever Isaac and Mortensen engage in their many close-quartered games of one-upmanship. Dunst is no less impressive in her more passive role for how her facial expressions speak volumes. Credit also goes to cinematographer Marcel Zyskind for accentuating the natural beauty of the Mediterranean setting and for making the more off the beaten path locales seem like no places for tourists. Like so many other noirs, this one is hard to say much about for fear of spoiling it - complimenting its surprises seems like a spoiler in and of itself - but I'll praise them anyway. They all took me for a loop and made me wonder how any of our gang would have a leg to stand on afterwards. After all, Hossein Amini, who made his feature directorial debut with this movie, wrote
Drive and considers
Le Samourai his bible, is no stranger to good noir. Presumably because it underperformed, he hasn't directed a movie since, which is a shame because he shows potential.
The movie is not without its flaws: whether they're a product of the source material of Amini's script, members of the trio sometimes make decisions that raise red flags. There are also some developments that are implied that I wish had been shown instead. It ended up exceeding my expectations anyway for how it works as noir and as a story about how complicated the father-son relationship can become. I watched it on Father's Day, and while it may actually be an anti-Father's Day movie, watching it on that holiday made the experience all the more resonant.