Filmfest Hamburg 2026: A Talent for Murder

As a filmmaker, Anton Corbijn is known for his special-ops thrillers (A Most Wanted Man, The American), music videos and documentaries, as well as the Ian Curtis biopic Control. Now the photographer-turned-director expands his field of interest towards the literary as he re-imagines crime author Patricia Highsmith’s final days as a misanthropic hermit living in seclusion in Switzerland. Dame Helen Mirren takes on the role of the novelist, who famously penned The Talented Mr Ripley, which prompted the Hamburg Film Festival to honour her lifetime achievement with its Douglas Sirk Prize.

In a nod to Highsmith’s debut novel, Strangers on a Train, A Talent for Murder’s protagonist Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich) befriends an unknown woman (Olivia Cooke) on his way to see the reclusive author. He works for a publishing house in New York and has been tasked with persuading Highsmith to write a sixth Ripley novel. His newfound acquaintance from the train will make its way into the plot of the novel Ridgeway, and Highsmith reluctantly starts devising it together, blurring the boundary where reality ends and fiction begins.

Corbijn’s feature joins a wave of 2026 releases exploring the concept of life imitating art, a theme that dominated nearly half of this year’s Cannes line-up, down to brand-new cinema release Verity. With the exception of honouring the legacy of the famous writer and her seductive spin on criminal activity, A Talent for Murder offers few fresh takes on this trend. It fares much better in its unpicking of audience sympathies for amoral characters, the active championing of their transgressions, as evidenced by the demand for more Ripley books.

Another point in its favour is that the picture doesn’t shy away from portraying the author as the complicated person she was, detailing her debilitating aversion to polite society and its conventions. Mirren, aided by dark contact lenses and muffled layers of masculine wardrobe, expertly taps into her paradoxical bristliness. The way she withdraws from life into an armour of solitude quietly echoes the snails she was so fond of.

The score is that of a thriller, adding a sense of unease to the playful manner in which the act of crime writing is dissected in the film. Mirren’s Highsmith lurks in the shadows of her own home and takes pleasure in frightening her houseguest. Equally morbid and invigorating, she leaves just enough clues for him to suspect she might have poisoned his breakfast. This piece conjures a woman who is entirely comfortable with people thinking the worst of her, if only it makes for an interesting impression.

All in all, it makes for a brief but enticing little excursion into the creative expression of Patricia Highsmith. While A Talent for Murder doesn’t necessitate prior knowledge of her work, it is likely best enjoyed by those at least marginally familiar with her writing and her characters.

Selina Sondermann

A Talent for Murder does not have a release date yet.