For various reasons but mostly pretentiousness, I haven’t liked any Tom Ripley adaptation. A Talent for Murder changes that. By telling two concurrent stories — one about Patricia Highsmith (a surly Helen Mirren) workshopping her next Ripley book to a publisher (Alden Ehrenreich), the other the re-enactment of said story as it develops between the two (with Ehrenreich also portraying Ripley) — the character becomes far more accessible. It's all carried by Ehrenreich, who gives a career-best performance full of layers and nuance through writing that is appropriately literary. The film isn’t flashy, presenting as both a stage play and childhood storytime, but it’s good old-fashioned filmmaking.