Walter Stackhouse is an architect by day, and a novelist by night, unhappily married to Clara. When he becomes fascinated by the case of a man (Eddie Marsan) suspected of murdering his wife, he begins to imagine what it would be like to murder his own wife.
While thrills are mitigated by convoluted plotting and suspect character behavior, the film's uniquely bleak twist on classic noir conventions is enlivening.
Good source material does not guarantee a good movie, and A Kind of Murder, a new Highsmith adaptation directed by Andy Goddard from a screenplay by Susan Boyd, is not a good movie.
The climax is not nearly as clever as at its set-up, but A Kind of Murder is a smart thriller, one that digs deep into the viewer's mind with difficult questions about guilt and morality.
Often, Patricia Highsmith's novels are adapted into high-class affairs, but this thriller feels refreshingly small-time and pulpy, getting closer to the story's raw emotions and impulses.
There's too much that's intriguing in this film to ignore it, and although the third act shows signs of strain, the first two acts more than justify the film's existence.
[Director Andy Goddard] just doesn't develop a level of intrigue or tension that you'd expect from a narrative that is built on double identities, perceptions, classism, and homicide.
English director Andy Goddard, who comes from directing episodes of hit period drama Downton Abbey, struggles to find a path through a story muddled by poor editing and even murkier characters.
A Kind of Murder keeps viewers guessing and comes highly recommended to crime film fans; in particular, to those with an itch for something old-fashioned.
