'The Two Faces of January' review: Tour guide takes couple for a ride

Ambiguity is the intrigue in "The Two Faces of January," a thriller starring Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac.

Acclaimed writer Hossein Amini, making his feature directing debut, sets it up beautifully on a sun-washed day in Athens, Greece, in the early 1960s. Rydal (Isaac), a self-assured tour guide (and con man, as it turns out), is leading a handful of attentive young beauties by the Acropolis. At a distance a polished, affluent American couple, Chester (Mortensen) and Colette (Dunst), are posing for each other, all smiles.

Both the couple and the tour guide deserve a second look. Their eyes lock and though the moment seems innocent enough, there is a sense that something darker is coming.

Amini, whose skillful translation of Henry James' "The Wings of the Dove" earned him an Oscar nomination in 1998, adapted "Two Faces" as well. It is based on a lesser work from novelist Patricia Highsmith and echoes the complex moral quandaries that bound up her characters in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" so wickedly.

Though the players here aren't quite as calculating, they are complicit in how this twisted tale plays out.

After another chance encounter between the trio, Chester and Colette invite Rydal to dinner. Later that night, there is a frightening confrontation and an accident involving Chester and Colette at their posh hotel. This is only the first of a long line of dominoes that will drop, but it is serious enough to send Chester and Colette scrambling for their lives. But nothing is ever settled. Difficult and equally unexpected situations arise at every turn. All require dangerous, and questionable, choices.

Amini has a powerful acting triumvirate to help him deal with the capricious nature of this particular tangled web.

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In Chester, Mortensen is more vulnerable than we usually see. Dunst brings a potent complexity to Colette; every mood shift registers to the bone. But this is Isaac's movie. In Rydal, the actor smolders on screen. It is mesmerizing whether he is enthralled by Colette or enraged by Chester. The film may be called "The Two Faces of January," but Isaac's is the only one you will care about.

PLOT A wealthy American couple touring Greece in the 1960s meet a con artist who becomes entranced by them, and a sudden accident puts them all in danger.

RATING PG-13 (some violence, language and smoking)

CAST Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, Oscar Isaac

LENGTH 1:37

BOTTOM LINE Well-crafted thriller, with superb performance by the three lead actors.