The Talented Mr. Ripley - La Dolce Vita Loco

http://www.moviejuice.com/1999/talentedmrripley.htm

by Mark Ramsey
December 18, 1999


So the opening credits of The Talented Mr. Ripley are rolling and what
do I see but the boom!

Hey, there it is again!  This time it's dangling like acoustically
sensitive mistletoe over Matt's head!

That damn boom has more screen time than Cate Blanchett!  Is there an
Oscar category for Best Supporting Leased Recording Equipment?  Does
it earn an acting credit:  "Mike D. Pole"?

Let's see, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the rich pastoral beauty
of Italy - a nation that never has a bad hair day.  What could be
better than this?

All set for a gripping, electrifying thriller, aren't you?

Sorry!

The Talented Mr. Ripley sports what may be the most deceptive trailer
of the year.  It couldn't be more misleading if it featured Gwyneth
crying "up, up, and away!" as she criss-crosses the Italian horizon
atop Dumbo the Elephant.

A terrifying thriller?  Not by a long shot.  It's way more benign.
Not to mention way more gay.

When Matt first kisses the boom "goodbye" and goes Andrew Cunanan all
over Italy, the audience snickered:  "Hey, this is almost kinda gay."
Then, after a few tender homo-hugs and a near-dip into an already
occupied bathtub, it became:  "Hey, this is totally gay!"

No wonder I left the theater fighting the urge to sing along to Cher
videos and creatively redecorate the house.  No wonder the Gap won't
suit me when Prada now sells bags for him!  If I had clippers I'd
style hair like nobody's business!  For a split second, an anonymous
encounter in an isolated men's room made all the sense in the world.
If somebody had dangled a boom over my head I would have tongued it
for sure.

Help!  Where's the Sports page?  I need an intervention!

All credit to Matt - not just for being unafraid of the homoerotic
subtext, but for wearing that atrocious day-glo yellow swimsuit!
Either it was very cold in Italy that day or Matt's packin' scale
model versions of certain key body parts.  Hey Matt, do you need
cement for that, or does it snap on?  Have you tried watering it?

The deal, you see, is that Matt wants so much to be Jude Law, he
pretends he is.  He even commits dastardly deeds to facilitate the
fakery.  So wherever Matt goes, some folks know him as himself and
others know him as Jude.  How does he juggle two identities?  The
same way Michael J. Fox did when he took two different girls to the
prom in Family Ties!

Dude Jude's a playboy who aims to suck the marrow out of life in
the hopes of getting sucked back.  "I could fuck this icebox, I
love it so much," says Jude, in what did not appear to be a
reference to Gwyneth.  Then again, I was watching for a boom cameo.

To demonstrate his talents of impersonation, Matt imitates Jude's
dad as Jude raves: "Uncanny"!  Although it looked pretty "canny" to
me.  Now if only he can do Sammy Davis Jr. we'll book him for a
week at the Mirage in Vegas.

Strangely, Ripley's main talent is accidentally running into Cate
Blachett all over Italy.  She paws him for a while, then moves on
to their next chance meeting a few minutes later in another obscure
corner of the country.  How do they do that?  What are the odds?
Does Matt leave a breadcrumb trail or something?  Did she implant a
global positioning device in those day-glo swim trunks?

A very small global positioning device, evidently.

Great performances abound in Ripley, especially from supporting
dynamos Jude Law and Philip Seymour Hoffman.  They're awesome.

"Have you ever wanted to be somebody else" this movie asks?  Well,
maybe if I'm Jude or Philip, but not if I'm Matt or Gwyneth, for
God's sake!  Are you nuts?

"It's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody," says Matt,
essentially verbalizing the career strategy of all entertainment
reporters everywhere.

You can't get what you want if you can't be who you are, Ripley
tells us.  In a world plush with fake somebodys it takes a real
nobody to realize a heart's desire.  I liked The Talented Mr.
Ripley more and more the farther I got from it.

Which, incidentally, is how the frame should feel about the boom.



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