# Talented Mr. Ripley, The (1999)

### reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz

TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, THE(director/writer: Anthony Minghella; Screenwriter: based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith; cinematographer: John Seale; cast: Matt Damon (Tom Ripley), Gwyneth Paltrow (Marge Sherwood), Jude Law (Dickie Greenleaf), Cate Blanchett (Meredith Logue), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Freddie Miles), Jack Davenport (Peter Smith-Kingsley), James Rebhorn (Herbert Greenleaf ), Sergio Rubini (Inspector Roverini), Philip Baker Hall (Alvin MacCarron), Celia Weston (Aunt Joan), Rosario Fiorello (Fausto ), Stefania Rocca (Silvana), Ivano Marescotti (Colonnello Verrecchia ), Anna Longhi (Signora Buffi), Alessandro Fabrizi (Sergeant Baggio), Lisa Eichhorn (Emily Greenleaf), 1999)

    Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" offers another screen adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel, the first being Rene Clement's "Purple Noon (59)," a more straight- forward Hitchcock type of film that the French actor Alain Delon couldn't do much with. Then there was Wim Wenders better version, "The American Friend (77)," where Dennis Hopper got into the sinister con man's character and showed how his criminal guilt was related to Germany's postwar guilt. This time, in a grander and more elaborate version, Tom Ripley (Damon) is a closet homosexual and someone capable of killing anyone who interferes with his plans to assume someone else's identity, which makes the crime thriller take on a slightly different meaning from the way Highsmith intended it to be perceived (she also wrote the novel for the great Hitchcock film, "Strangers on a Train"). For her, life had no escapes or false sentimentalities attached to it, it's just a trap that everyone is in and can't get out of, exceptthey can try to make things better for themselves through their cunning ways.

Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) will make the theme of the film into an identity crises problem that Ripley has and allow the film to become a character study about a sociopath who can complacently say about himself, "I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody." He has removed most of the complicated psychological layers of the character and made Ripley into a seemingly nicer sort of person, the murder he commits is not premeditated as in the novel but comes about when he is provoked beyond what his fragile nature can take.

Ripley is first seen playing the piano in a borrowed Princeton insignia blazer he got from the piano player he replaced at a rooftop reception, and the ambitious NYC men's room attendant with the Ivy League looks is spotted there by Herbert Greenleaf (Rebhorn), the shipping magnate, as he approaches Ripley with the thought that he is a college classmate of his son's and comes from the same upper-class strata, and he therefore makes a snap decision to have Ripley go find his wandering playboy son in Italy and urge him to come home. For his troubles, he will be paid a thousand dollars and expenses.

Minghella paints a picturesque view of how these rich Americans in the late 1950s live as ugly Americans in Europe, as the photography is brilliant, with its array of luminous colors, from Mediterranean places such as San Remo, Palermo, Roma, and Venice. The beautiful scenery,villas, luxurious hotels, and splendid boat rides are just right for getting the audience all excited about taking a look at how the smart-set travel and spend their leisure time. This fits in nicely with the touristy look of the film. But the story, as engrossing as it is, can so easily be forgotten when the film ends.

This is a big budget Miramax film, not an arthouse personal film. Its magnificent look took away any kind of noir intent the novel might have had if the film was done in the pure form it was written in.

The film becomes primarily a character study about Ripley and not a film that is too concerned about filling all the holes it has in its plot, which are enough to sink a ship. Ripley is unsatisfied with his lot in life and takes this once in a lifetime chance to be with the elite. He manages to engage the manipulative and good-looking Dickie (Jude) in the Italian seaside town he is idling away his time in, who seems to act more queer than Ripley but apparently isn't, as he is sexually active with his girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth), someone Ripley tries to befriend. She just seems to be along for the ride- her part is a rather inconsequential one, though it is in the same vein as the tiresome parts she usually stars in, but here we are, at least, spared from seeing tears come down her reddened cheeks. We just see her justifiable petulant anger, as she gives Ripley that knowing bitchy look of disapproval, indicating I know what you did to my Dickie.

Ripley's main intent, will be to concentrate on absorbing himself in Dickie's personality and to try to ingratiate himself with the womanizing and capricious wastrel- a part that Jude does a good job of conveying, as he captures the character's nasty mood swings as well as his goofy flippant side. One of the ways Ripley endears himself to Dickie, is sharing in his love for jazz with him, even though, he is only interested in the music because he knows that Dickie is. This friendship, built on his telling Dickie the reason that his father sent him here, will work out well as long as Dickie finds him amusing, but the relationship soon becomes frayed, as Dickie becomes irritated with some of his homoerotic gestures and grows tired of his lingering presence around him.

When asked by Dickie what his one talent is, Ripley names three- forger, liar, and impersonator. As the creepy young man will use his acquired talents to ingratiate himself to his superiors; he is seen here as being less a scam artist than he is of being someone trying desperately to fit in where he doesn't belong. When he senses he can't be a hanger-on with Dickie or Dickie's crowd anymore, he seizes the moment to kill Dickie and take his identity, as he discovers he has a talent for murder also.

Having already maneuvered his way into Dickie's crowd, but with no great lasting friendships in sight, his two greatest successes being with the textile heiress Meredith Logue (Cate) and the wealthy Peter Smith-Kingsley (Davenport). He met Meredith aboard the ship to Italy, and told her that he is Dickie Greenleaf and managed to get her to think they are kindred spirits and to have her fall pathetically in love with him. She will turn up at odd moments in his travels and be portrayed as the spoiled rich girl who doesn't know what to do with herself. The trick in this relationship, is for Ripley to think quickly on his feet so that she will not know that he is an impostor. His other positive relationship will be a homosexual one, as Peter will know him as Ripley and be used by him to cover his murderous tracks.

The strongest performance in the film comes from Freddie Miles (Philip Seymour Hoffman), as an edgy, playboy friend of Dickie's, who smells out Ripley but just fails to realize how deadly he can be. The scenes with Freddie pushed the envelope wide-open and made the average intelligence that Ripley possessed diminish in his chilling presence. Hoffman's screen presence sparked keen interest in the story and made it seem more powerful when he was onscreen. When he wasn't onscreen, the story wasn't quite as fascinating, which made me wonder if he would have been even more suited to play Ripley than the bland Damon was.

As the story gets violently out-of-hand, the pleasure in the film becomes mostly in watching the obvious lies Ripley tells when confronted by someone who knows that he is not being straight with them and yet he is shown to still manage to think fast on his feet and come up with a fitting story to put them off his trail. And, even if, there seems to be little sympathy for the idle-rich during Ripley's spree, there also becomes less and less sympathy for the psychopathic Ripley, who the filmmaker was insidiously trying to get the viewer to identify with.

The only question remaining becomes not why Ripley is doing this but whether or not he will get caught. Thereby, the film loses touch with the character who falls too far from the graces of any rationality for social acceptance, who is seen drowning in his own lies and trapped in his own guilt-ridden nature. In the novel, Ripley is more of a long-range scheming sociopath than he is in the film. The new spontaneous twists in the film changes the mood of the story, and makes it more creepy but not more endearing. I think the reason for that, is because the Matt Damon part loses the character's rich rebellious flavor and makes him become less an antihero than viewed as a serial murderer. To fully identify with Ripley would require the viewer losing himself totally in the character and seeing the world only through Ripley's narcissistic eyes, and that is the way Minghella probably wanted one to see the film and understand how Ripley operated. The problem with that, is it simplified all the dark notions of Ripley's character and lightened the burden of the story too much, trying to make it conform with the '90s style of film. As a result, this seductive film comes to a conclusion that failed to live up to the gamesmanship offered throughout most of the story. The film became less meaningful the longer it went on, and it ran for 139- minutes.

    REVIEWED ON 12/29/99      GRADE: B

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

    http://www.sover.net/~ozus

    ozus@sover.net

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