The Two Faces of January
The Two Faces of January (2014), written and Directed by Hossien Amini, is not a visually stunning movie, that is to say they did not seem to take many risks or push the boundaries of the visual image. That is not to say that it was not a beautifully shot or well-lit movie. I was immersed in the world, which felt very real, congruent, holding true to the style and tone of the movie. Good choices were made with the very real look to the film, captivating and immersing me into the story, the story of a novel, as it was originally, written by Patricia Highsmith. That being said, watching The Two Faces of January feels like you are watching the words of a novel unfold into reality, which perhaps especially in this case, is a major accomplishment.
It felt like what one might imagine if you were to read the book lost from the outside world. Running at about an hour and a half, it did not feel overly long or underly short. The story and plot itself was pushed forward smoothly, almost seamlessly and did not rely on action sequences to take up time, nor did it use the scenes where people talk as an exposition dump. There was subtext behind almost everything, and though there was a lot of talking scenes, it did not feel as though we were watching a dialogue heavy movie, as the actions were well strewn throughout. I did not feel lost as to character motivation, and they kept a very deep, evolving character analysis across all the characters over the course of the movie.
The evasion scene, the airport, truly captured the tension, the fear of what may happen if they are to be caught. The simplicity of establishing one random guy getting pulled out of line, and having officers walk past our characters Rydal (Played by Oscar Isaac) and Chester (Played by Viggo Mortensen) truly embodied a fear I felt for them, these greatly flawed men, in that moment. The chase of Rydal, as we are slowly putting together the pieces of Chester’s deception, kept me on edge. I truly believed and was sucked into the worry and quickening heartbeat for Rydal to weave around police officers.
Our characters were witty but not silver tongued. They were intelligent, but not geniuses. They were fools without being idiots. Cultured, but also ignorant. They were heavily flawed and still I was attached to them, I understood both of their motivations, wanting both of them to succeed, while reveling in their pitting against each other. In short, they were some of the most realistic characters I have seen in a movie in a long time. This movie eloquently made both of them be a protagonist and antagonist. Our villain was neither one nor the other, there was no big bad guy they were working to defeat. It was a story of two people and their evolution with each other.
Character-wise, Collette (Played by Kirsten Dunst) was on some levels a bit of a disappointment, and not from an acting standpoint. Collette was deep herself, but we never got to see too much of her side of things, it was about Rydal and Chester. Collette, who was married to Chester, was essentially the one and only secondary character, and as she was interesting, at times she was more of a subject to push the plot than her own full person. That being said, she did have deep moments, and there were times when the story focused on her and her view. But they were only moments, not long enough, or frequent enough to pull her into a triangle of main characters. On some level she was not a disappointment as she was prevalent in the main story and was a major part of the movie which is a great improvement over some, but it just wasn’t her story and it didn’t try to be, but it did include her deeply with the plot, adding depth to the story and movie as a whole. That is the role of a secondary character, and with that basis in mind now, she was a beautifully crafted and used character.
Why is it called, “The Two Faces of January”? Upon watching it once, I do not know. But I do know that It is worth the watch, specifically worth the time to sit down and watch it uninterrupted, as uninterrupted as one can be.
Nov. 27, 2017