THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY
Review by Harvey S. Karten, Compuserve

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/movies/titles/talented_mr_ripley/click.php?review=1


Paramount Pictures/ Miramax Films
Director: Anthony Minghella
Writer: Patricia Highsmith (novel), Anthony Minghella
Cast: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett,
        Jack Davenport, Caterina Deregibus, Philip Seymour
        Hoffman, James Rebhorn, Stefania Rocca, Philip Baker Hall

Aside from self-defense, do you think you could kill another human
being? Not your style? Perhaps. But some people disagree with you.
One of the dissenters is Patricia Highsmith, whose 1955 novel "The
Talented Mr. Ripley" has been made by Anthony Minghella ("The
English Patient") into what is easily the best crime thriller of
the year. Minghella proves that he is as adept at fashioning edge-
of-your seat, Hitchcockian dramas of transgression as he is at
building a sweeping love story. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is the
second screen adaptation of the Highsmith novel, the first being
Rene Clement's "Purple Noon" which starred Alain Delon as the title
character who envies his playboy friend and decides to kill the
young man and assume his identity. Both were lavishly filmed in
some of Italy's more scenic and characteristic spots. Minghella
wisely avoids the temptation to do the appealing psychological
study in the noir style, allowing cinematographer John Seale to
capture the brightly- colored vistas of Ischia, Palermo, Rome,
Anzio and Venice, thus affording the Italian Tourist Board with
spectacular, free promotion.

The Paramount Pictures/Miramax Films co-production also features
some of the handsomest performers in the business, including the
Jude Law, who bears not a slight resemblance to a Greek god; a
role that nicely explores the resources of the talented Matt
Damon; and a strikingly appealing Gwyneth Paltrow who looks
lovelier here than she has ever appeared before. Cate Blanchett,
who turns in a satisfactory performance as a ditzy rich gal comes
across as just plain silly in a role that does not capitalize on
her own meticulous capabilities.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" was the first in writer Patricia
Highsmith's series about an struggling American who becomes
entirely captivated by the good life in Europe and simply could
not see himself returning to the states as a hotel bathroom
attendant and sometimes pianist at social gatherings. And who
could blame him? How are you going to keep this Yank down in New
York after he's tasted la dolce vita?

Convincing shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf, the father (James
Rebhorn) of a wastrel, Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) that he had
attended the same class as Dickie at Princeton University, Tom
Ripley (Matt Damon) is given a thousand dollars by the older
Greenleaf to go to Italy and convince the young man to return
home. Tom discovers Dickie soaking up the sun with his girl
friend, Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), persuades the rich
young man as well that they were classmates at Princeton, and,
pretending that he shares a passion for jazz and a talent for
impersonation, is taken in by Dickie as a guest. While Tom hangs
out with Dickie, eating his food and allowing his host to buy him
some custom-made threads, shares with him the rich life--attending
jazz clubs and gawking at the beauty of a land which, on his own,
he would never have been able to see. We can easily see how the
alluring Dickie draws people toward him like a magnet, as he jumps
on the stage to share a song in Italian, plays his saxophone, and
plans a ski trip with his snobbish American friend, Freddie
(Philip Seymour Hoffman).

His ability to fit in with the good life gives Tom Ripley a vision:
he could have it all if he could erase Dickie from the scene, assume
his identity, and spend time forging checks and passing himself off
as the influential son of a magnate. Each time a situation arises
that could give him away, we in the audience hold our breath to see
how in the heck this audacious liar and murderer can avoid getting
caught. Tom's skill at winging it makes him actually likable to us
notwithstanding his dastardly deed, and given the natural resentment,
perhaps envy, we may have for the guy he kills (who is a womanizer
as well as a wastrel), we may actually root for him to fool
everybody--Dickie's girl friend, the American woman, Meredith Logue
(Cate Blanchett) who seems to turn up everywhere, Dickie's American
friend, Freddie Miles, and yet another man Tom befriends, Peter
Smith-Kingsley (Jack Davenport).

Minghella adds a gay theme absent from the Highsmith novel, a motif
which contributes to the tension and which gives us the feeling that
perhaps Tom was motivated to kill Dickie not only to take over his
wealth but because Dickie spurned a homosexual advance. The Patricia
Highsmith style can be spotted by anyone lucky enough to see the
first-class Hitchcock picture, the 1951 "Strangers on a Train,"
featuring a psychopathic Robert Walker's relationship with a tennis
star played by Farley Granger.

To see why a typically banal Hollywood ending was avoided we need
only check into the writings of novelist Highsmith who once said,
"Neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or not."
While director Minghella does make one concession to the modern A
merican audience by providing an emotional reason for the murder,
Highsmith was herself without interest in psychological explanations
for anything. Book reviewer Susannah Clapp has said, "Rather than
engaging the reader with the solution to a crime or the thrill of a
chase, Highsmith invites us to observe life as a cunningly devised
trap from which there is, as events accumulate, no escape." Minghella
remains true to the source by registering all actions in the movie,
whether violent or not, in a matter-of-fact way, allowing us in the
audience to treat events as witnesses to a clever game of a man
focusing his energies on avoiding a series of traps. The talented
Mr. Minghella will have every congregation of movie viewers sitting
in continuous apprehension.

Rated R. Running Time: 139 minutes.

c 1999 Harvey S. Karten