http://www.atnzone.com/moviezone/reviews/talentedripley.shtml

Nicholas Schager
@N-Zone Magazine. c 1999 All reviews contained above are
copyrighted by it's individual authors and may not be
reproduced without their permission.


For as long as it can, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" survives the
excesses of its gifted yet indulgent director Anthony Minghella.
Minghella, who helmed the opulent if overblown "The English
Patient," strives for the overwhelming in virtually every shot
he composes, as if to invest within his somewhat modest
narratives a magnitude that bespeaks greatness. And until its
final half-hour, as Minghella desperately tries to reach a
satisfactory conclusion, "Ripley" combines the diabolical with
the decadent in superbly suspenseful fashion.

It is no surprise that "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is fit for
Hitchcock-ian treatment—the novel on which the film is based
was written by Patricia Highsmith, whose first novel was the
source for "Strangers on a Train"—and Minghella sets the mood
perfectly. Amidst the sun-drenched beauty of Italian beaches and
smoke-filled carnality of underground jazz clubs, we are treated
to a funhouse of identity misappropriation, class envy, and
enchanting vistas that shimmer and seduce. A wealthy shipping
magnate, mistaking young Tom Ripley for a college friend of his
son, hires the innocuous Tom to travel to Italy, where he must
convince the man’s son, Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), to return
home.

Tom quickly finds Dickie, and in that discovery finds what he
has undoubtedly been looking for—an identity. Dickie, whose
ravenous appetite for the good life is enhanced by an apathetic
disposition towards responsibility (and whose girlfriend Marge,
played by the underutilized Gwyneth Paltrow, appears to be the
embodiment of radiance), is everything Tom himself dreams of
becoming. Yet Tom’s obsession with escaping his dreary,
uninteresting life as a bathroom attendant and transforming
himself into the captivating Dickie is tinged with murderous
overtones, and it is only a matter of time before Ripley has
disposed of Dickie and taken the young aristocrat’s life for
his own.

Ripley’s murder spree, we’re meant to understand, is motivated
by his unrequited homosexual longing for Dickie and a desire to
transcend his position at the bottom of the social ladder
(nicely illustrated by a recurring staircase motif). Damon plays
Ripley not as a crazed sociopath, but as a man whose longing for
a different life leads him down an uncontrollable spiral that
inevitably (and continually) necessitates murder. Damon, who
gracefully suppresses his superstar image, wisely allows Ripley’s
intense emotional and psychological conflicts raging just beneath
his muted exterior to unfold slowly, thus allowing the character
to continue surprising us long after the movie has lost its way,
which it does sharply in its final act.

While Minghella is able to visually convey the opulent
superficiality of the posh European landscape his characters
inhabit, he stumbles more noticeably as the suspense gains
momentum. The cinematography, by John Seale (who also worked with
Minghella on "The English Patient"), is nothing short of
mesmerizing (one gets the idea that Italy should use the film as
a lure for tourists). Yet the film’s last third lacks the sense
of claustrophobia, of internal disintegration, that Ripley’s
decent into murderous desperation requires, as if the filmmaker
is incapable of reigning in his grand designs. Minghella, it
finally becomes clear, is too enraptured by the wondrous beauty
of his locations to allow himself the flexibility to make the
film's finale work.

The supporting cast, which ranges from Philip Seymour Hoffman as
Dickie’s best friend, to Cate Blanchett as Meredith Logue, an
American who falls for Tom, is uniformly outstanding. As Dickie,
Jude Law personifies with flawless conviction a man whose hollow
appetites, shallow demeanor and irresistible charm doom him to a
life incomplete. Mr. Law, with a performance that nearly steals
the show, need not worry about so unpleasant a fate.