Chester MacFarland (Mortensen) and his wife Collette (Dunst), a very attractive and wealthy American couple, seem to be enjoying their visit to Greece. While sight-seeing in Athens, they meet tour guide Rydal (Isaac) at the Parthenon and invite him to join them for dinner. Rydal, also an American, delights them with his ability to speak Greek as well as his knowledge about Greece.
Still, we can’t help noticing a hint of tension between Chester and Rydal, who is much younger than Chester. Is it because Chester knows Rydal has been scamming tourists -- or because Rydal thinks Chester looks like his recently deceased father -- or because Collette pays so much attention to Rydal – or maybe for all three reasons? Not to worry, for the MacFarland’s will be leaving the next day.
Unfortunately, later that night Rydal goes to the posh hotel where the MacFarlands are staying to return an item of Collette’s that she left behind. What Rydal sees Chester doing in the hotel hallway ties these three people together in a dangerous situation – one involving suspicion of murder. And this is just the beginning of the film!
The Two Faces of January serves as an excellent example of how a well-made movie with outstanding performances can make us care about the characters despite their faults. Chester, a man who made his fortune by swindling others, evokes our sympathy because of Mortensen’s nuanced portrayal of a jealous husband afraid of losing his younger -- and very beautiful -- wife. Rydal also moves us as a result of Isaac’s ability to project the younger man’s confused feelings about Chester as well as his longing for Collette. Collette could have been just eye-candy, but Dunst endows her with with spunk and depth, so we forgive her too-quick temper and insensitivity to Chester.
There are no heroes here -- but who is the villain? Is there a good con man and a bad con man? The Two Faces of January makes you think about those two questions, for sure.
(Released by Magnolia Pictures and rated “PG-13” for some violence, language and smoking.)
Review also posted at ReelTalk Movie Reviews.
Speaking of smoking, I have just caught up with Manhattan. Unfortunately, On Demand did not allow me to see the first two episodes. The scientists, cooped up in nowhere with a intense desire to accomplish their mission, seem totally into smoking, drinking on the job, and sex, paints a pretty accurate picture of life in the war-torn 40s. It's interesting that the US government made sure that the liquor flowed and that cigarettes were available. The fact that much of the female staff on site were military or low-paid, led to much condoned prostitution as just a course of normal camp following in war. Very interesting and intriguing. I only wish I had talked more to my roommate for a year, Dr. JR Calloway Brown, a chemist who was 40 years my senior and was at the Manhattan Project. He was quite secretive about his past, a divorced man with children, a heavy drinker and chain smoker, who checked himself into the Mayo Hospital while staying in my house for a couple of weeks in the psychiatric ward for what was troubling him in his old age besides cataracts and high blood pressure. I never saw him or heard from him again after he left at the end of the academic year.
Ron