The Noir Chronicles: 1962

THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY (B) - This Patricia Highsmith adaptation is a stylish thriller but half empty, struggling to extract great performances from three solid actors.

The setting is 1962. An American grifter and his wife are tracked down by a private investigator in Athens, and an altercation sends them on the run. They run into another apparent American on the make, and the trio get sucked deeper into a quagmire of intrigue.

Chester MacFarland and his younger wife, Colette (Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst), are the dapper couple straight out of an Antonioni film. Wily, multilingual Rydal (Oscar Isaac, smoldering like a young Pacino) uses his language skills to skim a few twenties out of Chester's cash-stuffed briefcase. Rydal and Colette lock eyes immediately, and a rather chaste love triangle quickly ensues.

As the three try to finagle their way out of Greece, they become their own worst enemies. Chester is a prodigious drinker (in a trite big-screen way), and almost dares the other two to cross the line. Another death ensues. The two survivors grow more desperate. A double-cross at the airport -- in that great era where the ticket-takers where those cute little pillbox hats -- holds promise of escape. But the local police, looking like extras from "Casablanca," remain in hot pursuit.

Everything about this film -- a directorial debut from screenwriter Hossein Amini ("Snow White and the Huntsman," "Drive") -- seems like a knockoff. We get a little Hitchcock here, a little classic noir there. The three leads are quite talented, but none would be mistaken for an actor giving 100 percent. Dunst is uncharacteristically drab (though she's a knockout in a pale yellow dress or an elegant white nightgown), while Mortensen just never finds the right tone for his gruff character. As a result, Isaac is left out on a ledge too often. A side plot about Rydal's struggles to reconcile his estranged father's death goes nowhere.

Amini does drive the plot along, and manages to create tension when he needs to. In the end, though, we just don't care about which of these three ex-pats will be left standing.