Paradise in tune with death
Mr. Ripley's on the go amid mystery, amorality

http://www.denverpost.com/scene/ripley1224.htm

By Steven Rosen
Denver Post Movie Critic


Dec. 24 - Paradise did once exist on Earth - and "The Talented Mr.
Ripley" locates it.

It was Italy, late 1950s, a time when the rubPble of World War II
had been cleared for the "la dolce vita" of Federico Fellini.

Young, handsomely dressed (and undressed) people, especially
glamorously wealthy young Americans, lounged near Rome's Spanish
Steps or Piazza Navona, rode in red sports cars or on slim motor
bikes, talked in Venice's Piazzo San Marco, sailed their yachts to
sundrenched small islands, and listened to American cool-jazz
performers like Chet Baker at San Remo.

Love, fun and sex were in the air. Wine in every glass. Joy in
every bathing suit - if you could afford to forget the American
work ethic and just lap it up. Director Anthony Minghella so
strongly evokes - creates, really - this sense of a lost place
that this alone makes "Ripley" worth seeing. (It opens Saturday.)

He is aided by the intensely bright cinematography of John Seale, a
score by Gabriel Yared that mixes hot jazz with classical, and the
bold and lively retro-chic costumes of Ann Roth and Gary Jones. And
in Jude Law's high-spirited portrayal of Dickie Greenleaf, a
shipbuilder's son who fancies himself a jazz musician, he has found
a great actor to soak it all up.

But he also has supplied a haunting foil in Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) -
he's the bad life to Italy's sweet life. And the two go together
like, well, paradise and death.

If it means entry into this paradise, Tom is willing to change
everything about himself. And there's much to change. He's not
wealthy or educated; he's too gawky and uptight to be a playboy. But
he wants it ... oh, he can taste it. So he's even willing to give up
his name.

In his first movie since the Academy Award-winning "The English
Patient," Minghella has adapted the 1955 mystery novel by Patricia
Highsmith, who also wrote "Strangers on a Train," which became one
of Alfred Hitchcock's best movies. In her series of Ripley novels,
High-`smith created a chillingly memorable villain. Her Ripley was a
resourceful, amoral opportunist who gets away with murder. Damon
brings a thoroughly modern face and veneer of sincerity to the role
of Ripley. In fact, over the course of the movie, he can't quite
shake that sincerity - that Damon decency. Try as he might, he
doesn't fully let us into Ripley's psyche to understand his murderous
private agenda. But he does try hard; he is not coasting.

In 1960, French director Rene Clement filmed "Ripley" as "Purple
Noon" but crafted a very effective surprise ending in which Ripley
got caught. Minghella, who also wrote "Ripley's" screenplay, has
changed the story (and ending) to be closer to Highsmith's spirit if
not her exact plot. He also has made the gay subtext explicit; Ripley
is driven by a fear of his own homoerotic urges.

From the first we meet him, Tom is living a lie. At a cocktail party
in New York, he allows himself to be mistaken by Herbert Greenleaf
(James Rebhorn), as an ex-Yale classmate of Dickie's. Mr. Greenleaf
sends him to Italy to retrieve his son, who is living on the island
of Mongibello with his girlfriend, the sophisticated and reserved
writer Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow, in a demure but affecting
supporting performance).

Tom prepares by learning to love jazz, although he enjoys playing
classical piano. And at Mongibello, he dons his tight lime bathing
suit and on the beach walks right up to Dickie and Marge. "Ever see
a guy so white, Marge," Dickie says, and he quickly allows Tom into
the social world that orbits around the hot sunshine of his
personality. It doesn't even matter that Dickie can't remember Tom
from school. Entranced by Dickie's attention, Tom forgets his
mission - he wants this life!

The world of Dickie and Tom is "Ripley's" best part - not only do
they experience the sumptuous Italy of Fellini, but they become a
pair out of "Jules and Jim." Dickie drags Tom to wild Naples jazz
clubs, where Dickie plays sax and Tom sings "My Funny Valentine" in
a voice like Chet Baker's. Tom amuses Dickie with his dead-on
imitation of his dad. And in Rome, they meet Dickie's deeply
relaxed friend Freddie Miles (the excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman),
with whom they bop to the latest jazz discs at the record store.
There are a few ominous developments. A local girl pregnant by
Dickie turns up dead on Mongibello, her body floating to water's
surface during the Festival of Madonna del Mare. And Freddie catches
Tom spying on Dickie and Marge during a yachting trip.

Then on a motorboat trip, Dickie and Tom quarrel. In the scuffle,
Tom batters Dickie with the oar and, improvising like the jazz
musician Dickie wanted to be, hides the body. He decides to become
Dickie in order to acquire his lifestyle and income, while telling
Marge that Dickie has chosen to disappear for a while. At this
point, "Ripley" becomes a more Hitchcockian suspense movie, as well
as an investigation of the existential implications of Tom's
identity change in the man ner of Michelangelo Antonioni's great
"The Passenger." The mounting plot twists and contrivances - and
additional murders - lose credibility. It goes on too long. And the
strange and ambiguous ending, which attempts to meet Highsmith and
"Purple Noon" halfway, isn't satisfying.

But two fine performances emerge to keep the film's second half
interesting. Jack Davenport is humane and trusting as Peter Smith-
Kingsley, the classical musician who befriends Tom. And Cate
Blanchett is wonderful as Meredith Logue, an insecure, opera-loving
American socialite as fearful and tentative about her self-worth as
Dickie is assured. A New Yorker article explained how Highsmith
loved animals and detested the cavalier way we killed them for
sport or food. It's possible her Ripley was payback - an avenging
hunter who treated his fellow man like so much game. Despite its
flaws, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" makes us experience that
gamesmanship. And it makes us wish we, too, could lead the life of
Greenleaf.

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