Damon a terrific demon in Mr. Ripley

http://www.canoe.ca/JamMoviesReviewsT/talentedmrripley_sterdan.html

Friday, December 24, 1999
By DARRYL STERDAN
Winnipeg Sun


Everybody loves a really good -- and by really good, we mean really
bad -- villain.

Sure, Psycho's Norman Bates had some Oedipal issues, but be honest,
when Marion Crane's car finally glugged down into the swamp, we
sighed with relief along with him. And while no one wants Silence
Of The Lambs' Hannibal Lecter to have us for dinner, we still
cheered when he got away.

Now, add a name to the list of movie madmen we love to hate: Tom
Ripley, the wonderfully warped anti-hero of English Patient director
Anthony Minghella's stylishly creepy psychological thriller The
Talented Mr. Ripley. He's the most memorable movie bad boy since
Hannibal and Norman -- and like them, all he wanted was a little
love.

Who can blame him? When we meet Tom (Matt Damon, his aw-shucks
features pinched behind horn-rims), he's a lonely, uptight, classical
pianist stuck at the bottom -- literally -- in a basement flat in
late '50s New York City. But beneath those Clark Kent specs lurk
Ripley's super powers: Mimicry, forgery and the golden tongue of a
con man. So when a shipping magnate mistakes him for a classmate of
his black-sheep son, Tom plays along -- especially when pop offers a
job: Go to Europe (all expenses paid, of course, dear boy) and bring
the wayward lad home.

Cut to Italy, where Tom meets his quarry -- and his match -- in
Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law). The sax-playing hedonist is everything
Tom wants to be: Handsome, rich, freewheeling, seductive. Soon, Tom
is seduced by Dickie and his dolce vita of terrace brunches, lazy
days boating with his devoted fiancee Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) and
late nights in smoky jazz clubs.

Eventually, Dickie's dad wises up, and Tom's gravy train hits the
end of the line. And as his money runs out, so does shallow Dickie's
interest. But when he tries to break things off, well, let's just
say Tom goes a little crazy -- and soon, has to put all his nefarious
talents to the test as he spins an ever-widening web of lies to keep
his head above water.

Many critics have called Ripley one of the year's best movies, and
with good reason. It's a likely Oscar-magnet. First for Minghella,
who adapted Patricia Highsmith's novel -- she also wrote Strangers On
A Train -- into the sort of thriller Hitchcock would make if he were
around today. Think Vertigo in Venice: a heady mix of high style and
basic instinct that pushes the cinematic envelope with daring
situations, a smart story and an ending that isn't wrapped up with a
bow.

Hitch surely would have approved of the casting. Law is decadently
luminous as golden boy Dickie, Paltrow channels Grace Kelly as the
icy-cool Marge, whose world slowly unravels; and the always-great
Philip Seymour Hoffman all but steals the show as Dickie's playboy
pal Freddy, the only one who sees through Tom from the start -- and
pays for it.

Then, of course, there's Damon. Ripley is the biggest challenge and
risk of his young career -- a disturbed, sexually ambiguous villain
isn't great for teen heart-throb status. But his gamble pays off in
his best work to date; a sensitive, intricately layered portrait of
a desperate man who personifies the old saying about being careful
what you wish for. Expect a Best Actor nod.

 We're just sorry there isn't an Oscar for Best Villain.

(This film is rated AA)