Review of The Two Faces of January (2014) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is quite a tense sinister film, with constant spooky instrumental stringed music played in the background to accentuate this. There are a fair number of scenes which are very dimly lit and so I found it a little difficult to figure out exactly what was going on but I guess you could say it adds to the mystery of it. This film definitely has a classic feel to it, which made me think back to old gangster/fraud/crime films of the early to mid 20th century. The plot did seem to be quite detailed, even though I found it a bit hard to follow, what with some noticeably rather undecipherable dialogue at times and the dark lighting making some scenes seem rather chaotic and a bit disorientating, as I say. This film is very much about the characters and character development in general, with the viewer playing the role of a distant PI or detective, I suppose, trying to second guess the eventual outcome, identify any fake characters or moles and so on. Its fairly engrossing, with a strong mystery element to it but I have to say it didn't entirely appeal to me personally. I think the problem with me personally, in relation to this film, is that I'm so easily distracted that I accidentally miss perhaps slightly more subtle but yet important plot details, while briefly looking away from the screen. Also, as I say, yes this is a genuinely rather sinister and mysterious film but I think it may have suffered a bit from being too mysterious and unclear...perhaps? I have nothing against stylish films and undoubtedly this is one of them and the acting is pretty top notch, I couldn't help but feel it was a film that had a fair amount of thought put into it but it didn't really 'work' for me, as I felt confused and the various plot twists (of which there are, as I hint, numerous) only confused me further.

I think this film will appeal to some and it certainly does have an audience but it won't suit everyone. I would say that fans of other stylised crime/thriller/mystery films including the Oceans films (Oceans 11, Oceans 12 etc.) and The Talented Mr. Ripley may well enjoy this.

Time wise, this film has a running time of an hour and a half, so it isn't especially long. Another thing I should probably mention, is that given this film is set overseas, in non-English speaking countries, there are many scenes featuring subtitles, with relatively fast dialogue so you certainly have to stay glued to the screen (and a fairly good/quick reader) to keep track of things.

No, personally I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this film, although I'm sure it'll have its fans. I found it to be quite stylish, fairly engrossing and certainly with a good mysterious element to it but I also found it to be somehow hard to follow entirely, the subtitles were a bit off-putting and the low light in many scenes I found a nuisance and hindered me fully grasping going on but it is a pretty atmospheric film, it just isn't really 'my cup of tea'. As I mentioned previously, I imagine if you were/are particularly keen on the 'Oceans' film or/and 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' then you may well enjoy this but personally, I saw it very much as an average, middle of the road type film I'm afraid.