THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Paramount Pictures/ Miramax Films Director: Anthony Minghella Writer: Patricia Highsmith (novel), Anthony Minghella Cast: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Jack Davenport, Caterina Deregibus, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Rebhorn, Stefania Rocca, Philip Baker Hall
Aside from self-defense, do you think you could kill another human being? Not your style? Perhaps. But some people disagree with you. One of the dissenters is Patricia Highsmith, whose 1955 novel "The Talented Mr. Ripley" has been made by Anthony Minghella ("The English Patient") into what is easily the best crime thriller of the year. Minghella proves that he is as adept at fashioning edge-of-your seat, Hitchcockian dramas of transgression as he is at building a sweeping love story. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is the second screen adaptation of the Highsmith novel, the first being Rene Clement's "Purple Noon" which starred Alain Delon as the title character who envies his playboy friend and decides to kill the young man and assume his identity. Both were lavishly filmed in some of Italy's more scenic and characteristic spots. Minghella wisely avoids the temptation to do the appealing psychological study in the noir style, allowing cinematographer John Seale to capture the brightly- colored vistas of Ischia, Palermo, Rome, Anzio and Venice, thus affording the Italian Tourist Board with spectacular, free promotion.
The Paramount Pictures/Miramax Films co-production also features some of the handsomest performers in the business, including the Jude Law, who bears not a slight resemblance to a Greek god; a role that nicely explores the resources of the talented Matt Damon; and a strikingly appealing Gwyneth Paltrow who looks lovelier here than she has ever appeared before. Cate Blanchett, who turns in a satisfactory performance as a ditzy rich gal comes across as just plain silly in a role that does not capitalize on her own meticulous capabilities.
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" was the first in writer Patricia Highsmith's series about an struggling American who becomes entirely captivated by the good life in Europe and simply could not see himself returning to the states as a hotel bathroom attendant and sometimes pianist at social gatherings. And who could blame him? How are you going to keep this Yank down in New York after he's tasted la dolce vita?
Convincing shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf, the father (James Rebhorn) of a wastrel, Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) that he had attended the same class as Dickie at Princeton University, Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is given a thousand dollars by the older Greenleaf to go to Italy and convince the young man to return home. Tom discovers Dickie soaking up the sun with his girl friend, Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), persuades the rich young man as well that they were classmates at Princeton, and, pretending that he shares a passion for jazz and a talent for impersonation, is taken in by Dickie as a guest. While Tom hangs out with Dickie, eating his food and allowing his host to buy him some custom-made threads, shares with him the rich life--attending jazz clubs and gawking at the beauty of a land which, on his own, he would never have been able to see. We can easily see how the alluring Dickie draws people toward him like a magnet, as he jumps on the stage to share a song in Italian, plays his saxophone, and plans a ski trip with his snobbish American friend, Freddie (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
His ability to fit in with the good life gives Tom Ripley a vision: he could have it all if he could erase Dickie from the scene, assume his identity, and spend time forging checks and passing himself off as the influential son of a magnate. Each time a situation arises that could give him away, we in the audience hold our breath to see how in the heck this audacious liar and murderer can avoid getting caught. Tom's skill at winging it makes him actually likable to us notwithstanding his dastardly deed, and given the natural resentment, perhaps envy, we may have for the guy he kills (who is a womanizer as well as a wastrel), we may actually root for him to fool everybody--Dickie's girl friend, the American woman, Meredith Logue (Cate Blanchett) who seems to turn up everywhere, Dickie's American friend, Freddie Miles, and yet another man Tom befriends, Peter Smith-Kingsley (Jack Davenport).
Minghella adds a gay theme absent from the Highsmith novel, a motif which contributes to the tension and which gives us the feeling that perhaps Tom was motivated to kill Dickie not only to take over his wealth but because Dickie spurned a homosexual advance. The Patricia Highsmith style can be spotted by anyone lucky enough to see the first-class Hitchcock picture, the 1951 "Strangers on a Train," featuring a psychopathic Robert Walker's relationship with a tennis star played by Farley Granger.
To see why a typically banal Hollywood ending was avoided we need only check into the writings of novelist Highsmith who once said, "Neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or not." While director Minghella does make one concession to the modern American audience by providing an emotional reason for the murder, Highsmith was herself without interest in psychological explanations for anything. Book reviewer Susannah Clapp has said, "Rather than engaging the reader with the solution to a crime or the thrill of a chase, Highsmith invites us to observe life as a cunningly devised trap from which there is, as events accumulate, no escape." Minghella remains true to the source by registering all actions in the movie, whether violent or not, in a matter-of-fact way, allowing us in the audience to treat events as witnesses to a clever game of a man focusing his energies on avoiding a series of traps. The talented Mr. Minghella will have every congregation of movie viewers sitting in continuous apprehension.
Rated R. Running Time: 139 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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