http://www.cnn.com/1999/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/23/review.mrripley/index.html

December 23, 1999
Web posted at: 5:57 p.m. EST (2257 GMT)
By Reviewer Paul Clinton


(CNN) -- What do you do after your 1996 film, "The English Patient,"
wins Academy Awards for best film of the year; best directing (Anthony
Minghella); best editing (Walter Murch); best cinematography (John
Seale); best costumes (Ann Roth); and best score (Gabriel Yared)?

If you're writer-director Minghella, you adapt another difficult book
for the screen. This time, he's chosen the popular 1950s suspense
novel, "The Talented Mr. Ripley," the first in a series of "Ripley"
books by the late Patricia Highsmith. And you hire the same behind-the-
scenes award-winning people you used before. And you hope lightning
strikes twice.

It seems to have worked.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" has received five Golden Globe nominations
this week, including best dramatic film of the year. Both Matt Damon
and Jude Law are nominated (for best actor and best supporting actor,
respectively), and Minghella is once again singled out for his
direction, as is Yared for his musical score.

This isn't the first time Highsmith's work has been made into a major
motion picture. Alfred Hitchcock made "Strangers on a Train" (1951),
based on one of her books. And this same "Ripley" novel was made into
a film once before -- in 1960, it was released as "Purple Noon," a
French-Italian thriller starring Alain Delon and directed by Rene
Clement.

Chameleon at work

This time, Damon stars as Tom Ripley, a young piano player from the
wrong side of the tracks. He's mistaken for a Princeton schoolmate of
Dickie Greenleaf (Law) by Greenleaf's millionaire father, Herbert
(James Rebhorn). He hires Tom to retrieve his son from the idle life
he's living in Italy during the late 1950s.

Dickie and his girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow) befriend
Tom -- despite their misgivings about who he really is -- and he
quickly becomes something of a double agent. After confessing his
true mission to Dickie and Marge, he continues to take the elder
Greenleaf's money. But instead of trying to get Dickie to go home,
he's secretly in cahoots with the two young expatriates in their
pursuit of "la dolce vita."

Tom takes to that good life like a duck to water and begins to
worship both Dickie and his wealth. But when Dickie tires of his new
companion and threatens to cut him loose, things turn violently dark.

At this the point, the film departs from Highsmith's novel. Minghella
has moved several dramatic actions deep into the story line.
Concessions are made in order to maintain some audience sympathy for
certain characters. Minghella has also created new characters
including Meredith Logue, played by Cate Blanchett. Meredith is
another young wealthy American traveling in Europe.

Tom introduces himself to her as Dickie, and his relationship with
her mirrors the one between the real Dickie and Marge. Eventually,
Meredith's misinformation about Tom's identity helps him to blur
reality when it becomes necessary later in the film.

This, it turns out, is the "talent" of Tom Ripley, a criminal
propensity for identity switches. We him across Italy watching him
slip in and out of personalities, covering his tracks along the way.

Minghella has beefed up the novel's character of Peter Smith-Kingsley,
played by Jack Davenport. Peter offers Tom a last-minute chance at a
happy life, which he's unable to take.

Unfunny valentine

This intriguing and stylish story is told through Ripley's eyes, and
he says at one point the signature line for his character, Highsmith's
book and Minghella's film: "It's better to be a fake somebody than a
real nobody."

That sentiment is at the heart of this film. We're asked to identify
with an anti-protagonist. And because of this tightly written script
by Minghella and the impressive talents of Damon, we do.

Law is stunningly charismatic as Dickie Greenleaf, and his Golden
Globe nomination is greatly deserved. Both Paltrow and Blanchett are
perfectly pitched as unwilling foils in Ripley's fiendish plot.

Also well-earned: Yared's nomination for his musical score. The music
is almost a character in the film. In the original novel, Dickie is a
painter. Minghella has made him a saxophonist in love with jazz. Tom
is an opera buff and their different tastes in music inform their
characters. Jazz (Dickie) is full of improvisation, loose and relaxed.
Opera (Tom) is rigid and controlled.

Opera fans may also note a clever scene about halfway through the film.
Tom is almost caught posing as Dickie at an operatic performance. The
show onstage mirrors the plot of the film. It's Tchaikovsky's "Eugene
Onegin," based on Pushkin's poem about a man who kills his best friend.

Another musical moment that goes straight to the plot comes when Damon
sings a la Chet Baker the song "My Funny Valentine." His longing for
Dickie resonates in every note. (By the way, Damon's crooning is quite
good, not that he should quit his day job.)

Everyone at some point has felt like an outsider, an outcast, and this
story taps into that sensation. Tom's sense of being different and his
alienation from those around him is highlighted by the fact that he's
gay and in love with Dickie and what he represents.

This homosexual element comes from Highsmith's novel; it's been
brought forward more in the screenplay. But Tom's sexual orientation
is just one of many shadings to Ripley's character and not any kind
of main motivational factor.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" loses a bit of its steam toward the end,
but Minghella has still delivered an extremely provocative and well-
made film.