Eva Vitija’s documentary on the bestselling author Patricia Highsmith makes the case for its subject as the ultimate literary outsider, in flight from her patriarchal Texas background, likening herself to her sociopathic character Tom Ripley and publishing her pioneering gay romance, Carol, under an assumed name. She comes across as an awkward customer, never truly sympathetic, and the film rather glosses over her antisemitic outbursts, implying that she simply got a little cranky with age.
That aside, it’s a thorough, measured, often illuminating portrait, aided by readings from Highsmith’s unpublished diaries and interviews with her ex-lovers. As soon as she could, Highsmith left the US for Europe. She liked living behind high garden walls or inside modernist bunkers; a closed book to the world, most of her mysteries intact.
