A MOVIE PARABLE:
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY

http://www.christiancritic.com/movies/talmrrip.htm

--Michael Elliott--
c/o Movie Parables
mailto:[e-mail]


It is a sin to waste one's talent. And it is a sad pity to sit by and
watch someone else do it. The Talented Mr. Ripley tells a sad tale of
a capable but unhappy and deeply troubled young man who desires a
life other than the one he has been given.

Matt Damon (Dogma) plays the sociopathic pianist/bathroom attendant
Tom Ripley who is quick to confess that his primary talent is in
mimicry. Mistaken for a Princeton graduate, he is hired by a
frustrated father to fly to Italy and convince his wayward son (and
fellow Princetonian) to return to the United States.

Recognizing a good deal when one falls in his lap, Tom readily
agrees. Even before setting foot on Italian soil, he is already
introducing himself as Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law, ExistenZ), the
young playboy he was sent to retrieve. One taste of Dickie's
lifestyle is enough to convince Tom that this life is infinitely
better than the one he left behind. Little did he realize at the
time the trap he was setting for himself.

After ingratiating himself to Dickie and his girlfriend Marge
(Gwyneth Paltrow, A Perfect Murder), Tom becomes inseparable from
them. Figuring it is better to be "a fake somebody than a real
nobody," he successfully reinvents himself to fit in with the
"manor born" crowd. When Dickie eventually tires of his continual
company, it is no surprise to find that Tom is not so agreeable to
leave.

Upon Dickie's demise, Tom decides to adopt his identity and stay
in Italy. This will present a bit of a problem as many already know
him as Tom Ripley and many know what Dickie Greenleaf really looks
like. Thus begins a series of duplicitous hoops through which Tom
must jump just to keep his lies believable and his crimes
undiscovered.

The Talented Mr. Ripley is more a character study than a genuine
thriller. Mr. Damon does a fine (even if somewhat unnerving) job in
portraying a man with severe psychological problems. Quick-witted
and even tempered, Tom's surface demeanor belies the turmoil and
conflicts raging within his heart.

Jude Law is well cast as a privileged rich child who completely and
totally disrespects the very source of his privilege. Spoiled
beyond words, his character, Dickie, uses people as others might
use old newspaper. And yet his charismatic personality attracts
people to him as effortlessly as a light captures a moth's
attention (oftentimes with the same disastrous results).

Both Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett (Pushing Tin) lend their
considerable talents to the film but play relatively insubstantial
characters, serving as pawns in the misguided Ripley's mental chess
game.

Writer/director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) working
from Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel, has set the film in the late
fifties, a dynamic time in Italy's history. While focusing on the
novel's concept of changing one's life by stealing the more
desirable life of another, he has made a number of textual
modifications to the original tale.

An added plot device which, for me, neither enhanced nor
contributed to the appreciation of the source material was the
introduction of homosexual elements. Subtly introduced a quarter of
the way into the film, the homosexuality of certain central
characters eventually becomes a dominant, driving force in the
film's story. It was not needed and served to weaken the overall
impact of this psychological study.

Ripley is a tragic figure. He is made tragic by his inability to
recognize his own self worth. Whenever we envy the life of another,
we fail to be thankful for all we already have. Envy leads to
discontent which opens the mind's door for all kinds of devilish
thought and action.

For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil
work. James 3:16 [KJV]

When we live with the awareness that God is our sufficiency and
that we are uniquely created in Him, we are able to appreciate the
lives of others without being desirous of the lives they lead. God
would have you be thankful for your own life. After all... He is.