`Ripley' fails to match `English Patient'


By Jeff Millar
Houston Chronicle
Published: 12/24/99
(San Antonio)


The Talented Mr. Ripley, the new film by director Anthony Minghella,
fails to match his The English Patient.

Perhaps at 90 or so minutes, it would have been the Hitchcockian
thriller that it isn't at the beginning but turns into. At two hours
and 20 minutes, there's too much of the film that feels like
reiteration, or flipping through postcards of the locations.

Minghella adapted his screenplay from the book by crime novelist
Patricia Highsmith, whose first novel, Strangers on a Train,
produced one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films. Some of Strangers'
themes were picked up in this story, which was published in the
early '50s. It was previously filmed in 1960 by Rene Clement as
Purple Noon, with Alain Delon in the title role played here by Matt
Damon. Minghella moves the period up to the late '50s.

In the screenplay's excised beginning, it is said, we are provided
with background to explain Tom Ripley's later behavior. But
additional characterization really isn't needed. We can surmise all
we really need to know about why he does what he does quite readily.

As the film plays, Tom is discovered as a pianist -- only good
enough to be an accompanist -- and washroom attendant. But he went
to Princeton (he says). That and his boyish charm is good enough to
get him close enough to a New York City shipbuilding tycoon to get
a free ride to Europe. There, he's somehow supposed to persuade
dad's wastrel son, Dickie (Jude Law), to return to the States, grow
up and take his place as dad's successor.

Dickie is discovered in Italy. He's deeply into jazz -- it's the
Charlie Parker era -- and plays saxophone. He lives in smashing
villas with the smashing Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow).

Mr. Ripley's talents include forgery and impersonation, a brilliance
at on-his-feet improvisation and, especially, a kind of puppyish
ability to ingratiate. Dickie and Marge find that Tom makes them
laugh. They take him into their lives as a kind of mascot.

Tom, in his single corduroy jacket, wants very badly to have what
Dickie has. How badly? He's preparing to take over Dickie's
identity, whether Dickie's prepared to surrender it or not.

All the while Tom's being greedy and calculating, Minghella's
trying to cop sympathy for this person whom a cadre of shrinks
would take weeks to diagnose. "I'd rather be a fake somebody,"
says Tom at one point, "than a real nobody."

If you have seen the blabs-it-all trailer or TV commercial, none
of the following contains spoilers.

Tom is crafty enough to tell Dickie of his father's deal with him.
As Tom anticipated, Dickie's delighted at this new opportunity to
divest Dad of more money. But Dickie tires of Tom. Upon being fired
as mascot, Tom goes postal, so what happens to Dickie seems less
like premeditation and more a spurned lover. Although repressed to
'50s circumspection, Tom is clearly in love with Dickie. Law plays
Dickie as plausibly bisexual, so it might be reciprocated.

Tom slips comfortably into Dickie's identity and into Dickie's
account at the American Express in Rome. But Rome is full of people
who knew Tom as Tom and Tom-as-Dickie as Dickie. Much of the rest
of the film is devoted to Dickie's switching hats, moving fast,
thinking on his feet.

It's clever. But the time Minghella devotes to wondering how Tom
feels -- and by that asking for more sympathy for him -- feels
poorly invested. Do we really care that much if Tom feels guilty
about what he does? Far more interesting is what he does. And that
can be reported far more quickly.

Damon's good, if a bit overmatched. Paltrow has little to do but
wait around to see if she'll be needed as a generic blond Hitchcock
heroine, to become more and more imperiled as composer Gabriel
Yared makes his soundtrack more and more neo-Bernard Herrman.

Minghella is given excellent supporting performances from Cate
Blanchett, who plays an American heiress who is attracted to Tom-
as-Dickie; and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays one of Dickie's
dissipate expatriate friends.

The film looks gorgeous, give it that, in both production design
and the Travel Channel tour of Italy. And the bus goes slowly.
You'll have plenty of time to see everything.


The Talented Mr. Ripley

Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law

Opening: Christmas Day at area theaters

Rating: R ( for violence, language and brief nudity)


Movie Type
Drama, Suspense/Thriller


Running Time
135 minutes


Directed By
Anthony Minghella


Cast
Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett,
Phillip Seymour Hoffman


Written By
Anthony Minghella, Patricia Highsmith (novel)


Year
1999

MPAA Rating
R: Restricted
for violence, language and brief nudity