Bright and shining lies
Mr. Ripley isn't the only talented one in this film noir gem,
skillfully acted and directed.
By STEVE PERSALL
c St. Petersburg Times, published December 24, 1999
Nearly every scene in Anthony Minghella's malignant thriller
The Talented Mr. Ripley occurs when crime and passion aren't
likely, in paradise daylight so bright that dark lies and
darker deeds should be exposed, or never considered in the
first place.
It is a grand touch perfectly contrasting the coldhearted
instincts of Tom Ripley, a personality parasite desperate to
join a privileged world beyond his means. Ripley is handsome,
which is his only obvious trait that hasn't been stolen from
someone else. Prep charm alone could make him accepted among
hedonistic 1950s Americans frolicking on the Mediterranean,
yet this obsessive liar isn't taking any chances.
Despite its sunny surface, The Talented Mr. Ripley possesses
the ruthless vitality of classic film noir. Minghella expands
that hard-boiled genre into something lumiere. This
contradiction of setting and tone simultaneously mutes
Ripley's amorality and makes it more shocking.
Anyone wondering what a difference cagey direction makes
should pay close attention to Minghella's work here. Using
mirror reflections and subtle advocacy, he makes Ripley's
compulsion seem morbidly sympathetic. The filmmaker's guile
is never more apparent than in a late scene when Ripley lies
his way into fortune he doesn't merit.
Initially, the twist brought a supportive smile for a nice
guy succeeding. Then the memory of what led to that success
replaced the smile with the embarrassed frown of being another
Ripley dupe. Minghella constantly tweaks our awareness and
loyalties, creating a cinematic conundrum in which only Ripley
gets what he wants, at a personal cost that is truly deserved.
Minghella turns the audience into arbiters of morality, a duty
that continues long after the film's final, chilling sounds.
Matt Damon is a fine choice for the Ripley role, with his
fresh-faced affability and a reluctance to settle for easy
hero roles such glamor could enable him to breeze through.
Damon makes the chameleon nature of Ripley completely
believable. Watch how his eyes study lips and body language of
people around him, picking up patterns to be mimicked when
necessary. Note the carefully modulated fright of a serial
deceiver waiting to be deduced. Damon never overplays the
method or madness.
He fools the audience from the start, playing piano for a
posh Manhattan party in a borrowed Princeton blazer. A shipping
magnate (James Rebhorn) is a believer, inquiring whether Ripley
knows his son Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), a Princeton graduate
living a playboy existence in Italy. Ripley follows his
psychotic muse, claiming to know Dickie well. The father offers
the impostor $1,000 and free passage to talk his son into coming
back home.
Ripley could take the money and run, except habitual deception
won't allow it. He tracks down Dickie and his girlfriend, Marge
Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), convincing them that he and Dickie
were college pals. Everybody wants to be friends with dashing
Dickie, so any vagueness about Ripley is excused by too many
chums and martinis. The trio cruise through southern Italy,
with Ripley always one calculated step ahead of the others.
The liar's motivations are as fragmented as his persona.
Certainly, there is an allure to Dickie's jet-setting ways,
typical of be-bop Americans venturing abroad in the late '50s
because the United States was so square. Marge is one of the
prizes of such a lifestyle. And Dickie awakens curious feelings
in Ripley that could be homoerotic, if such an uncertain
personality can settle on a sexual label. Good times lead to
mistrust and finally murder, as Ripley impulsively reels into
his most frantic delusions yet.
Minghella's screenplay adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel
is a model of escalating dread, with crises known only to Ripley
and the audience. We share his apprehensions and his relieved
sighs when the next elusive fib works. The movie might devolve
into just another stalker flick, but Minghella stimulates
elemental suspense into something loftier with creepy precision.
Like the free-form jazz music distinguishing the soundtrack, The
Talented Mr. Ripley veers into avenues that could be dead ends,
yet always reconvenes in perfect rhythm.
This film displays high class at every turn, from its luxurious
locales and clockwork drama to actors meeting each insinuating
challenge of the script. Paltrow does more with her role than
one suspects at first, taking Marge from a carefree spirit to
hardened realist. Law is going to be a popular item in Hollywood
after his bravura turn as Dickie, seeming to have no bad side for
the camera to exhibit. The character is so ingratiating that
Dickie's fate casts an appropriate pall on everything that
follows, as it must for Ripley to be anything but a hero.
Strong support comes from Cate Blanchett as an American seeking
romance with Ripley, or whoever he passes himself off to be. She
is the most important pawn in the game Ripley concocts to save
himself. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Magnolia, Flawless) is once
again impressive as a snooty boozer sensing more truth about
Ripley than anyone else. Even the smallest roles count under
Minghella's superbly measured guidance.
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a marvelous medium ground at a time
when filmmakers are deconstructing conventions with such zeal
that some viewers are left puzzled. The film has a firmly
nostalgic aura, with enough contemporary candor and cerebral
maneuvers to massage modern expectations. Everybody wins except
the victims. Minghella crafted a diabolical mousetrap for a
charismatic rat.
Paramount Pictures and Miramax Films
MOVIE REVIEW The Talented Mr. Ripley
Grade: Director: Anthony Minghella
Cast: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett,
Philip Seymour Hoffma
Screenplay: Anthony Minghella, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith
Rating: R; violence, sexual situations, profanity, nudity
Running time: 139 min.