In The Two Faces of January, Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen), a bigtime conman whose schemes have gone awry, has fled the U.S. with his wife Colette (Kirsten Dunst) in an attempt to evade his victims. Chester’s crimes, however, quickly catch up with him when a detective tracks him down in Greece, and it is from this point forward that Chester and Colette are forced to work with Rydal (Oscar Isaac), a low level conman who may nor may not be into Colette, in order to escape the authorities.

The Bechdel, Russo, and Race Test

The Two Faces of January does not pass the Bechdel, Russo or race test.

 

There are two named women in The Two Faces of January, and because these two never have an exclusive conversation with each other where men are not mentioned, the film does not pass the Bechdel test. The Two Faces of January also fails to pass the Russo and race test because there no LGBTI characters in the film and because there is only one non-White character (Rydal) in The Two Faces of January.