The Talented Mr. Ripley

The Talented Mr. Ripley
original film poster
Directed by	Anthony Minghella
Produced by	William Horberg Tom Sternberg
Written by	Patricia Highsmith (novel) Anthony Minghella (screenplay)
Starring	Matt Damon Jude Law Gwyneth Paltrow Cate Blanchett Philip Seymour Hoffman Jack Davenport
Music by	Gabriel Yared
Cinematography	John Seale
Editing by	Walter Murch
Distributed by	- USA - Paramount Pictures - non-USA - Miramax Films
Release date(s)	December 25, 1999
Running time	139 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$40,090,000

The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1999 film directed by Anthony Minghella. It is an adaptation of the 1955 novel by Patricia Highsmith, which was also filmed in 1960 as Plein Soleil (Purple Noon).

The Talented Mr. Ripley starred Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge Sherwood, Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf, Cate Blanchett as Meredith Logue (a character created for the film), Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddie Miles, Jack Davenport as Peter Smith-Kingsley (a character expanded for the film) and James Rebhorn as Herbert Greenleaf.

It was filmed mainly in Italy with famous landmarks in the cities of Rome and Venice being used as a backdrop for the narrative. An opera scene features the duel between Lensky and Onegin from Eugene Onegin.

Plot

Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is a young man struggling to make a living in New York City. While working at a party, playing the piano in a borrowed Princeton jacket, he is approached by the wealthy Herbert Greenleaf, who believes Tom to be an actual graduate of the university and a friend of his son, Dickie. Ripley is asked to travel to Italy to persuade Dickie to return to the United States and help run the family business. He agrees, even though he did not go to Princeton and has never even met Dickie.

Shortly after his arrival in Italy, Ripley meets Dickie (Jude Law) and his girlfriend, Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), and quickly ingratiates himself into their lives. Dickie eventually begins to tire of his new friend, however, resenting Ripley's constant presence and growing dependence, especially after he learns that Ripley has been lying about their days together at Princeton. Ripley's feelings are complicated by his desire to maintain the wealthy lifestyle Greenleaf has afforded him, and by his growing sexual obsession with his new friend.

As a gesture to Ripley, Greenleaf agrees to travel with him on a short holiday to Sanremo. The two hire a small boat and head out to sea. They begin arguing while on board, with Dickie rejecting and mocking Ripley. Enraged, Ripley attacks Dickie, smashing him with an oar, and kills him in the ensuing struggle. Horrified, he lets the boat drift to shore while lying on the chest of Dickie's lifeless body. He then sinks the boat, with Dickie's body still on board, to conceal his crime and swims to shore.

When the hotel concierge mistakes him for Dickie, Ripley realizes he can assume Dickie's identity. He takes on Dickie's signature and passport and begins living off his allowance. He carefully provides communications to Marge to make her believe that Dickie has deserted her. He even books into two separate hotels as himself and Greenleaf and passes messages between "them" via the hotel staff, thus providing the illusion that Dickie is still alive.

Later, in Rome, Ripley rents a posh apartment. He spends a lonely Christmas, buying expensive presents for himself. Dickie's old friend Freddie Miles visits what he supposes to be Dickie's apartment. He is immediately suspicious of Ripley: the apartment is not furnished in what he considers to be Dickie's style and the landlady complains about the constant piano-playing, whereas Greenleaf does not play the piano. When Miles is about to confront Ripley about this, Ripley murders him as well.

Over the next few weeks, Ripley's existence becomes a "cat and mouse" game with the police and Greenleaf's friends. His predicament is complicated by Meredith Logue, a wealthy heiress he met while traveling to Italy and to whom he introduced himself as Dickie Greenleaf — before he had even met the man.

Ripley forges a suicide note in Greenleaf's name and moves to Venice. In quick succession, Marge, Dickie's father and an American private detective confront Ripley. Marge in particular suspects Ripley of involvement in Dickie's death, whereupon Ripley prepares to murder her. He is interrupted when Marge's friend, Peter Smith-Kingsley, enters the apartment.

The private detective reveals that Mr. Greenleaf has decided to give Ripley a portion of Dickie's income with the understanding that certain sordid details about his son's past not be revealed to the Italian police — such as a vicious assault on a fellow student at Princeton or an affair with a girl he impregnated who subsequently committed suicide.

Ripley goes on a cruise with Smith-Kingsley, his new lover, only to discover that Meredith is also on board the cruise. Ripley realizes it will be impossible to keep Smith-Kingsley from discovering that he has been passing himself off as Dickie, since Peter and Meredith know each other and could eventually exchange words. He cannot solve this dilemma by murdering Logue, as she is traveling with a large family that would quickly notice her disappearance. The movie concludes with a sobbing Ripley strangling Smith-Kingsley, and returning to his cabin, alone.

Differences from the book

The film broadly follows Highsmith's plot, but Minghella's screenplay made some changes and introduced characters to complicate Ripley's dilemma.

• In the novel, Marge is insecure and frumpy (described as having a "gourdlike figure"), and she may be one in a line of Dickie Greenleaf's meaningless flings. As portrayed by Paltrow, she is a beautiful, elegant woman who seems to be well matched with Greenleaf, and the film suggests that Greenleaf's feelings for her are genuine, in spite of his affairs. In the novel, she detests Ripley from the beginning, describing him as "a nothing"; in the film, she is somewhat friendly with him until she begins to suspect his involvement in Dickie's death.

• Highsmith's characterisation of Ripley is much darker than Minghella's. Although the novel's characterization of him is not without redeeming qualities, it essentially portrays him as a sociopath who has no qualms about committing cold-blooded murder. The film, meanwhile, portrays him as an almost tragic character, motivated more by self-hatred than greed. These changes received a certain amount of criticism.^[1]

• At the beginning of Highsmith's novel, Ripley is already posing fraudulently as a tax official and working on a moneymaking scam. He sends letters to people informing them that they owe further payments on their taxes. In the film, he works as a lavatory attendant and other blue-collar jobs.

• The Dickie Greenleaf character in the film also differs somewhat from the character in the novel. While Highsmith's characterization of him as a charismatic, spoiled playboy remains fundamentally intact, the character in Minghella's film has a darker side that is absent from the novel. In the film, he has a fierce temper that can give way to violence — his father sent him to Italy to escape publicity after he nearly killed a man in a barfight — and he carelessly abandons a local woman he has impregnated, who eventually commits suicide.

• The 1999 film portrays Ripley's fascination with Greenleaf as overtly sexual. While this is alluded to in the novel, the film focuses much more heavily on it.

• The motivation for the murder of Greenleaf is treated quite differently, although the setting is identical. In the 1999 film, Ripley kills Greenleaf in a moment of rage after being mocked and rejected. In the novel, the murder is premeditated, with Ripley planning each detail in advance and then carrying it out.

• Minghella created one character and modified another to provide Ripley with additional complications. Meredith Logue, who does not appear in the novel, is an American heiress who is bored by her family's wealth but quite content to spend the money. She meets Ripley shortly after his arrival in Italy, and he introduces himself to her as Greenleaf. With their shared contempt for their families, she feels she has found a kindred spirit in Ripley (as Greenleaf), and the two have a romance of sorts. Her presence in Rome causes Ripley problems when he is with Marge, as Meredith, who knows him only as Greenleaf, keeps appearing at inopportune moments.

• Peter Smith-Kingsley is a minor character in the novel. In the film, he becomes Ripley's confidante and eventually his lover. In the novel, Ripley briefly considers murdering Peter and taking on his identity in place of Dickie Greenleaf's, but rejects the idea because he does not feel he could pass as Peter physically. In the film Ripley does murder Peter, although under different circumstances to those contemplated in the novel.

Reaction

Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "The movie is an intelligent a thriller as you'll see this year. It is also insidious in the way it leads us to identify with Tom Ripley ... He's a monster, but we want him to get away with it".^[2] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin praised Jude Law's performance: "A word about the film's Dickie Greenleaf: this is a star-making role for the preternaturally talented English actor Jude Law. Beyond being devastatingly good-looking, Mr. Law gives Dickie the manic, teasing powers of manipulation that make him ardently courted by every man or woman he knows".^[3] Entertainment Weekly magazine gave the film an "A-" rating and Lisa Schwarzbaum praised Matt Damon's performance: "Damon is at once an obvious choice for the part and a hard sell to audiences soothed by his amiable boyishness ... the facade works surprisingly well when Damon holds that gleaming smile just a few seconds too long, his Eagle Scout eyes fixed just a blink more than the calm gaze of any non-murdering young man. And in that opacity we see horror".^[4] Sight and Sound magazine's Charlotte O'Sullivan wrote, "A tense, troubling thriller, marred only by problems of pacing (the middle section drags) and some implausible characterisation (Meredith's obsession with Ripley never convinces), it's full of vivid, miserable life".^[5] Time named it one of the ten best films of the year and called it a "devious twist on the Patricia Highsmith crime novel about patrician indolence and underclass yearning".^[6]

In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "On balance, The Talented Mr. Ripley is worth seeing more for its undeniably delightful journey than its final destination. Perhaps wall-to-wall amorality and triumphant evil leave too sour an aftertaste even for the most sophisticated anti-Hollywood palate".^[7] In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw wrote, "The Talented Mr Ripley begins as an ingenious exposition of the great truth about charming people having something to hide: namely, their utter reliance on others. It ends up as a dismayingly unthrilling thriller and bafflingly unconvincing character study".^[8] In her review for the Village Voice, Amy Taubin criticized Anthony Minghella as a "would-be art film director who never takes his eye off the box office, doesn't allow himself to become embroiled in such complexity. He turns The Talented Mr. Ripley into a splashy tourist trap of a movie. The effect is rather like reading The National Enquirer in a café overlooking the Adriatic".^[9]

Awards

Academy Award nominations

Golden Globe nominations

Awards won

• BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actor – Jude Law
• Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actor – Jude Law
• BFCA Award for Best Score – Gabriel Yared
• NBR Award for Best Director – Anthony Minghella
• NBR Award for Best Supporting Actor – Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Writers Guild of America for Best Adapted Screenplay – Anthony Minghella
• National Society of Film Critics for Best Supporting Actor – Philip Seymour Hoffman

See also

• The novel The Talented Mr. Ripley was first filmed as Plein Soleil (also known as Purple Noon) in 1960. It was directed by René Clément and starred Alain Delon as Ripley.
• Other film adaptations featuring Tom Ripley are Mr. Ripley's Return (aka Ripley Under Ground), Ripley's Game, and The American Friend.

References

External links

• The Talented Mr. Ripley at the Internet Movie Database
• The Talented Mr. Ripley at Allmovie
• The Talented Mr. Ripley at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Talented Mr. Ripley at Metacritic
• The Talented Mr. Ripley Trailer at the New York Times website

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