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The Talented Mr. Ripley (12-Dec-1999)
Director: Anthony Minghella Keywords: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
REVIEWS Review by Walter Frith (posted on 9-Jun-2007) Director Anthony Minghella was challenged to come up an encore to his
runaway 1996 hit 'The English Patient'. That film won nine Oscars, some
of the most in history, and although Minghella will be hard pressed in
the minds of many to top that effort, 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' has a
curious air of looking like Minghella isn't even attempting to top it
and that's a good thing. The same can be said for Quentin Tarantino
when he made 1997's 'Jackie Brown', knowing it would never be as good
as 'Pulp Fiction', Tarantino didn't try to top it and good directors
know their limitations and when their opportunities to exceed present
themselves. The only time a director tries to top a previous effort is
usually when a previous film is made for commercial reasons and studio
interference is instrumental in overkill for its sequel, usually in the
case of a splashy, big budgeted action film or a half baked comedy and
these films usually have a different director than the original film.
Matt Damon. A talented actor and writer. How many of you remember that
he DID win as Oscar for 1997's 'Good Will Hunting' as the film's
co-author along with Ben Affleck and Damon gave a dynamite, hard edged
Oscar nominated performance in it and the same year, played a young and
determined lawyer battling the odds in Francis Coppola's 'The
Rainmaker'. Damon couldn't have looked more different in those two
films and now plays the heavy in a film that asks us to be happy with
who we are and to truly not covet anything that belongs to somebody
else. Set in the 1950's and based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith,
'The 'Talented Mr. Ripley' has an aristocratic look of Hitchcockian
elegance and doomed fate for many of its characters and treats the
subject of murder as a chilling and memorable nightmare for the
audience and the people up on the screen. Tom Ripley (Matt Damon). We
see early that he isn't happy with who he is because he borrows a
Princeton University jacket one afternoon for a reception in New York
City where he plays the piano and is approached by a rich husband and
wife who ask if he ever knew their son Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) at
Princeton. They offer to pay Tom's expenses to Europe with the hope
that he can go to Italy and convince their son to return to America.
Tom's trip to the continent of culture is made difficult by his
encounter with Dickie. When he does find him, he turns out to be a
wholly rude and obnoxious lout. A man who thinks he is too good for his
own country and slices through his fortune with great comfort without
any appreciation of how he got it (from his rich parents) and treats
only his girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) with the slightest amount
of courtesy. Key to the plot are two other characters who are in the
mix of things to add tension and authenticity to the film's plot. They
are a wealthy woman traveling in Europe (Cate Blanchett), who befriends
Tom, and Dickie's equally obnoxious peer Freddie Miles (Philip Seymour
Hoffman). Matt Damon's performance as Tom Ripley is rather low key but
this is a clever choice and decision on the part of both Damon and
Minghella for allowing it to be that way since the film's second half
has a different and totally appropriate look and we, the audience, are
treated to a film with a slow beginning that picks up later rather than
one that starts off great and then loses steam. Mingehella uses a very
even handed approach to the material and illustrates his characters as
a cross between high art and the bankrupt culture of criminal violence
and never lets one element rise above the other. His lavish and
exquisitely filmed scenes around the European scene are marvelous to
watch and director of photography John Seale, who won the Oscar for
'The English Patient', uses lighting as mood swings that look almost as
good as the personalities of the film's human contributors. It's almost
as if the camera is a character in itself. An unusual and impressive
feat that looks original and the film has lethal shots of beauty (and
sometimes horror) at almost every turn. The film will have problems
however, when it comes to Oscar nominations. Jude Law's character
disappears too quickly and Matt Damon has been upstaged this year by
too many other good performances. Minghella also will suffer
comparisons to 'The Englsih Patient'. It will be a sub-conscious thing
with Academy voters who would sing a different tune if this film had
not been in the shadow of another so revered. What does all of this add
up to? For me, one of the ten best films of 1999 since it pays tribute
to great films of the past, has a shocking and unexpected criminal
twist for layers of superlative suspense and teaches us all to be happy
with who we are, something so many of us have forgotten, often because
of our overlearned and under appreciated existences which in many cases
are a lot better than we give them credit for. Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by
Walter Frith
Locate a copy of this film here.
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