The Accidental Killer  |   John Hartl

http://www.film.com/film-review/1999/13081/109/default-review.html


The movies have done right by the late Patricia Highsmith. Her first
novel, "Strangers on a Train," was brilliantly filmed by Alfred
Hitchcock in 1951. "Ripley's Game" was effectively translated as Wim
Wenders' The American Friend (1977) while Rene Clement turned "The
Talented Mr. Ripley" into the sensual film-noir classic, Purple Noon
(1959).

So why fix what wasn't broken? Why do a remake?

Writer-director Anthony Minghella's answer is to go back to the book
and put back what Clement left out (including the original ending
and the very American nature of the tricky title character). But
he's also added one major character, expanded on another and, in
effect, turned High smith's slender story into a kind of epic about
shifting identity.

The result may not be Highsmith's or Clement's Ripley, but, in the
hands of Minghella and his star, Matt Damon, Ripley has become a
more complex character, in some ways more understandable and
approachable, in other ways as enigmatic as ever. His quest to
become someone else eventually succeeds; in the process, however, he
becomes a kind of accidental serial killer.

In this version, set in 1958-59, Tom Ripley starts out as a lowly New
York restroom attendant who pretends to be the classmate of a wealthy
American expatriate, Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), whose father (James
Rebhorn) pays Ripley to bring his son back from Europe. In Italy,
Ripley skillfully transforms himself into Greenleaf's new best
friend, and he becomes quite addicted to the man's lifestyle, which
includes a duped girlfriend, Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow).

An unspoken homoerotic attraction develops between the two men,
partly because of Greenleaf's love of American jazz and Ripley's
resourceful attempts to match it, but Greenleaf puts a stop to the
flirtation by telling Ripley that he's bored with their games.
Already fearful that he's been replaced by another of Greenleaf's
buddies, Freddie Miles (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Ripley can't deal
with being shut out of their charmed circle. In effect, he destroys
Greenleaf and becomes him.

At first Minghella seems to be taking a traditional, softening
Hollywood approach, by drawing the audience into Ripley's con
artistry and making it seem accidental; he's even been given a
playful accomplice in deception, Meredith Logue (played by Cate
Blanchett), and a devoted homosexual fan, Peter Smith-Kingsley (Jack
Davenport). The script almost turns the selfish, easily distracted
Greenleaf into a deserving victim; he's now been given a violent
background of his own.

Gradually, a different agenda emerges, as Ripley finds himself
cursed with the isolating consequences of getting what he wants. At
first it's easy to sympathize with this gawky, penniless kid who
uses his wits to social-climb. But as he takes over Greenleaf's
life, he reaches new, unexpectedly taxing levels of deception,
pretending to be Ripley to one group of people, pretending to be
Greenleaf to another. The game doesn't exactly drive him mad, but
it makes contentment with any new role impossible.

Minghella has surrounded his actors with European locations that
couldn't be more attractive or suggestive of the late-1950s Italy
that inspired Fellini's La Dolce Vita. Most of the Oscar-winning
crew who worked with him on The English Patient are back again -
cinematographer John Seale, editor Walter Murch, composer Gabriel
Yared - and they've simply outdone themselves. Yared's thrilling
score may be the year's best.

Still, it's the actors who carry this story, and Minghella has
cast them perfectly. Paltrow, playing an essentially helpless
character, has never been so moving; her "breakup" scene with
Greenleaf and her attack on Ripley are particularly raw. Law may
seem typecast after playing similar roles in Wilde and Midnight in
the Garden of Good and Evil, but he takes the part of Greenleaf to
another level (his anger over his father's hiring of Ripley is
especially revealing).

Davenport and Blanchett make their brutally deceived characters
more than victims, and Hoffman gives a show-stopping performance
as Greenleaf's observant goodtime buddy. In the end, of course,
it's Damon's show, and he captures every turn of this deeply
twisted character.