THE TWO FACES OF JANUARYThough the film noir genre has spawned some of the finest movies ever made, illuminated by the likes of Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and The Third Man – it seems to be a classic style mostly confined to the past, encapsulating the treasured 1940s era of cinema.When tackled in contemporary film, we tend to see subversions of the genre, with the likes Sin City and Drive, for example. However, Hossein Amini’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s eponymous novel, The Two Faces of January, is noir in its purest form, as a real attempt to recreate the quintessential pictures of old, and remain faithful to the discernible tropes and conventions. Though admiring Amini for giving it a go, this particular endeavour is uninspiring and forgettable.

Set in Athens, Oscar Isaac plays Rydal, a tour guide by day and chancer by night, always looking to make a cheap dollar off a tourist and lure impressionable young women into bed. However when he sets his eyes on the visiting couple Chester (Viggo Mortensen) and Colette MacFarland (Kirsten Dunst), a range of emotions are triggered within him, as he falls in love with the latter, and yet can’t look beyond how much the former resembles his recently deceased father. Eventually making acquaintances with the married couple, Rydal gets caught up in a murder case, when Chester accidentally kills an investigator, who had been chasing after the shady, affluent con-man for money owed. The trio then decide to flee, though as tensions mount, it seems their most feared adversaries may well be those closest to them.

With all the makings of a stunning piece of cinema, given the commendable cast and riveting narrative, regrettably Amini lacks one vital ingredient, and arguably the most important of all when it comes to the film noir genre; suspense. You could watch Double Indemnity 50 times in a row and every time you’d be left on the edge of your seat. The generic score may insinuate the notion, yet it’s never achieved. There are a handful of moments in this film that provoke minor feelings of anxiety, but on the whole it’s far too flat, and we don’t have the emotional investment in the characters. So much of the supposed intensity derives from our personal wish for the protagonists to not get caught – whereas in this instance we simply aren’t bothered either way.

Another flaw comes in the character of Colette, as her role is so vital to this story, as the link between Rydal and Chester, and yet she’s not anywhere near as fleshed out as she should be – or as the other two are. Traditionally, the genre may tend to lean towards male dominated casts, but the imperative leading female role is always so dominant and integral to the film, and yet in this it feels almost superfluous. It may seem somewhat uncompromising to merely compare this title to some of the finest productions ever made, but as this obeys to the archetype of the genre so faithfully, it has to be judged accordingly.

On a more positive note, the way this picture has been shot is impressive, while the whole look and landscape is an enamouring one, capturing that romanticism and broodiness of a summer’s evening in a Mediterranean country. There does remain a lot to be admired about this picture, it just feels like a generic, somewhat prosaic piece, not fully doing justice to the potentially fascinating source material. Rather than feel like an actual film noir, instead it feels like a modern film imitating the genre, and as such struggles to compel in quite the way it should.

[Rating:3/5]