The tricky business of riffing on Ripley

Patricia Highsmith secured her reputation as a brilliant writer of crime fiction with The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), a mystery followed by four more Ripley novels, the last appearing in 1991. Not that Highsmith was unknown before Ripley. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, appeared in 1950 and was adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. A lesbian with a fondness for pet snails, Highsmith was quick to display her racism and anti-Semitism, as well as her contempt for those she considered to be less acute in their observations. American born, Highsmith lived most of her adult life as an expatriate. Directed by Anton Corbijn (The American and Control), A Talent for Murder attempts to out-trick the tricky Highsmith, setting a high bar the movie can't quite jump over. Still, Joanna Murray-Smith expands her stage play to create a Ripley-like mystery that plumbs Highsmith levels of amorality. A Talent for Murder brings the fictional character of Edward Ridgeway (Alden…