Ripley's Game (2002) is a feature film based on the 1974 novel of the same name, the third in Patricia Highsmith's "Ripliad," a series of books chronicling the murderous adventures of con artist Tom Ripley. John Malkovich stars as Highsmith's anti-hero, opposite Dougray Scott and Ray Winstone.
The director is the veteran Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani, whose career dates back to the 1960s and includes one of the 1970s' most controversial movies, The Night Porter.
Plot
A wealthy Tom Ripley is living in Italy and is involved in an art scam in Berlin, partnered with Reeves, a crude British gangster whom he orders to remain out on the street as the deal goes down.
A violent argument breaks out in which Ripley kills one of his "customers." He gives the money to Reeves but takes the artwork for himself, curtly informing Reeves that their partnership is over.
Ripley returns to the Italian villa he shares with his wife Luisa, a beautiful harpsichordist. Invited to a party by a neighbor, Ripley is having a pleasant time until he overhears the host, Jonathan Trevanny, calling him as a tasteless American snob. Ripley briefly confronts him, then sullenly leaves the party.
Reeves resurfaces, much to Ripley's annoyance. He wants Ripley to kill someone for him. Remembering the slight, Ripley recommends that an amateur do it -- Trevanny, a law-abiding art framer who is dying of leukemia.
Trevanny is astounded and can't understand how Reeves came to choose him. However, he is tempted by the money, which he could leave to his wife, Sarah, upon his death.
He goes through with the job, a hit in Berlin, which he assumes will be a one-time-only assignment. Reeves has other ideas, however. He blackmails Trevanny into taking on another assassination, this time a complicated one on a train.
Ripley intervenes in the nick of time. After a series of grisly murders on the train, Trevanny returns home, where he attempts to persuade Sarah that the money he suddenly possesses is the result of his having volunteered for an experimental medical treatment in Berlin.
The victims' men come to Italy seeking revenge, storming the villa and leaving Reeves' body in a car trunk. Ripley has set traps for them, however, and dispatches each with Trevanny's help.
A horrified Sarah confronts Trevanny just as yet another killer comes to their home. Ripley arrives in time to save their lives, but in the end Trevanny sacrifices himself to save Ripley. Genuinely puzzled by Trevanny's selflessness, Ripley tries to give Sarah her husband's share of the money but she spits in his face. Ripley returns to his daily life, as if nothing has happened.
Cast
Critical reaction
Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that of the four films based on the Ripley novels that he has seen, he considers Ripley's Game to be "without question the best" and that "Malkovich is precisely the Tom Ripley I imagine when I read the novels." Ebert listed Ripley's Game as one of his "Great Movies" (April 21, 2006).
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