The Talented Mr. RipleyPeople are defined by who others perceive them to be. The Talented Mr. Ripley is a psychological thriller about a young man named Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), who ingratiates himself into the lives of a rich young couple traveling abroad in Italy: Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) and his fiancée, Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow). Tom fabricates a past for himself that makes him appealing to the couple, and he eventually begins to fall in love with the elite lifestyle of Dickie, seemingly trying to transform into the socialite himself. But after Dickie tries to dislodge himself from the parasitic Tom, the clouds darken and what began as a warm friendship leads to cold-blooded murder.
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Written and directed by Anthony Minghella, and adapted from the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley is a fast-moving thriller, like a lightning bolt. This is important, because despite Tom being essentially a conman and (eventually) a murderer, the film hinges on the audience's sympathy with this sociopathic fraud. How do you do that? For this movie, this has a lot to do with making it appear (at first) that Tom's identification as a Princeton graduate by Dickie's rich father, Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn), was just a misunderstanding. We are introduced to Tom at a rooftop piano and song recital for Herbert and his other rich friends. Tom is wearing a blazer with the Princeton crest emblazoned on it, and Herbert concludes that he attended the school because of it, and that he might have known his son, Dickie. This is the moment of truth for Tom: does he explain that he was just filling in for another pianist with a broken hand and that he merely borrowed his blazer, or does he lie? Well...it wouldn't be much of a story if he told the truth. So Tom lies, but it becomes clear that he does this because he likes the idea of being perceived as an elite like Herbert and his son. Tom works in a toilet, brushing off the jackets of rich men at the opera, sneaking opportunities to perfect his pianism after hours on stage. He lives in a basement apartment with neighbors that shout. He only has one nice shirt. So when the pushy Herbert offers him a thousand dollars to sail to Italy and try to convince his son to come home, if you were Tom, would you refuse? And that's where the film counts on audiences saying "no, I wouldn't turn that down", and empathizing with Tom...even though we know that he lied. The Talented Mr. Ripley constantly tests its audience about how far his infatuation with the lifestyles of the rich and famous permit him to adopt his aliases. After Tom arrives in Italy, he crosses paths with a young heiress named Meredith Logue (Cate Blanchett), who Tom introduces himself to as "Dickie Greenleaf". Why? Could it be that he figures that he'll never meet this woman again, so he might as well practice his art at mimicry or maybe he just wants to have a little fun? Maybe yes, maybe no. It's more likely that he's already become so fixated on his as-of-yet unmet mark that he has other designs in mind. (This certainly works to his advantage later.) Either way, this is definitely weirder than just a case of mistaken identity. But can we still forgive Tom? Much of this also has to do with Matt Damon's portrayal of the con man as humble and enthusiastic rather than malevolent. We want to like the seemingly kind and gentle Tom. So when his fixation on Dickie become so overwhelming, and when Dickie ignores him or outright pushes him away, we feel his pain...to a point.
Tom is a schemer. He creates situations to give himself the upper hand in interactions, even if it appears otherwise. Take when he introduces himself to Dickie and Marge in Mongibello. He walks out to the water holding his shoes, stands there for a moment, then walks back past them to make it look like he just happened to cross paths with them as he was finishing up at the beach. He claims that he knew Dickie from Princeton, latching on to Herbert's error in judgment and hoping that Dickie is too polite or forgetful to catch him in the lie. Dickie replies by teasing Tom about how pale he is, which Tom plays off like a joke, but in a way that gives the appearance that he finds the comment slightly hurtful. This plays off of Marge's good manners, who invites Tom to dine with them. So on one hand, this makes it look like Tom manipulates Dickie and Marge into letting him into their lives; alternately, it could have just been a natural product of the situation. But as the film progresses, it becomes less and less likely that these coincidences occur on accident. This speaks to Dickie's attitude toward Tom as their relationship continues. Dickie begins to notice Tom's oddly possessive behavior toward him and his lifestyle, which makes him increasingly suspicious that Tom is running a con on him and he ultimately confronts him about this little by little. Tom acts shocked, making the confrontation look like a betrayal of their friendship; but Tom has been operating under the assumption that Dickie is stupid or too trusting to catch on. That is ultimately Tom's greatest flaw; he secretly believes himself to be superior to the people he hurts or lies to, and this is when his lies start to fall apart. It is evident that Dickie's father is kind of a rich dope, but his kid is not. Tom preys on the kindness of others, or at least their naivete. He believes that because he lacks their privilege that he is at liberty to leech off of it because of his talent at forgery and mimicry...because he believes himself to be more deserving and smarter than them. The irony is that despite his economic standing, Tom has more entitlement issues than practically any of the people who he exploits. Whenever others question his motives, he tries to play it off as a misunderstanding, or he acts like he is the victim. He casually insinuates to Marge that Dickie is "abandoning" them to make her lean on him more. He criticizes Dickie's friend, Freddie Miles (Philip Seymour Hoffman), as uncultured or uncouth at the opera because Freddie is wise to his game. In many cases when Tom appears to be on the verge of being revealed, he tries to spin events to make it look like everything is playing into his master plan; but Tom ultimately resorts to murder in more than one instance when the chips are down. That his schemes ultimately collapse in such a lethal way shows that he is hardly the impervious mastermind which he believes himself to be at his core.
There are multiple ways to interpret Tom's relationships in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Although only subtext in the source material, the film makes frequent suggestions that Tom may be homosexual. He makes comments to Dickie that suggest more than just a brotherly infatuation with the confident and dynamic Princeton grad, like implying that he would like to join him in the bathtub. But after Tom kills Dickie, in what superficially appears to be an argument gone awry on a dinghy, Tom leverages his aptitude for mimicking Dickie and passes as him in Rome, altering his hairstyle and mannerisms to match, and even reuniting with Meredith and teasing a blossoming romance with her yet to come. Tom even removes his glasses to complete the disguise--as he observes to Dickie, like "Clark Kent"--which suggests that they were just an affectation the whole time. Regardless of any sexual attraction, Tom wants to be Dickie. Tom sees Dickie's life as everything that he should have, and devotes himself wholly to maintaining the charade. And after Tom kills Dickie and fabricates evidence to give Marge the impression that he is just getting cold feet over their engagement. Marge confides in another friend named Peter Smith-Kingsley (Jack Davenport), who Tom latches onto as well, and apparently seduces. Homosexuality has been a theme in virtually all of the works adapted from Highsmith, presumably because she was one herself, but also because of the content in her other books, like "The Price of Salt" (later adapted into Carol). Consider, for example, that same undercurrent which is present in the character of Bruno in Strangers on a Train, which was also adapted from one of her novels. In The Talented Mr. Ripley, it seems more likely that Tom is not truly a person for whom sexuality makes any difference save that it allows him to maintain the (albeit fraudulent) lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. If he has to play a part to engender himself into an elite inner circle, so be it. For Tom, discarding friends and lovers that have become a liability is all too easy, which he proves at the conclusion of the film. Both the novel and the movie are a kind of riff on "The Great Gatsby", in that Tom moves into a world of hedonism and elitism, but in this case Tom is not merely an observer, but an intruder...a threat, even if he downplays this in the extreme. Tom remains an persistent enigma, although he teasingly tries to reveal his inner self at subtle moments in the movie. As he is talking about one thing to Peter, for inscance, he interjects details which are clearly meant to describe himself, like about a "basement" where all of the "demons" that make up our past dwell, and how he is too terrified to reveal that past to anyone. But because Tom is a liar, the question always lingers, is always unanswered: is Tom making this up too, or has something else deep down driven him along this path of darkness and deception? Would we even trust the answer if we got one?
Recommended for: Fans of a vivacious and heady thriller where attitudes toward the protagonist shift at the drop of a hat. The Talented Mr. Ripley is a complex and nuanced thriller filled with a cast of talented actors, many of whom star in roles that would help to define their careers.
Tom is a schemer. He creates situations to give himself the upper hand in interactions, even if it appears otherwise. Take when he introduces himself to Dickie and Marge in Mongibello. He walks out to the water holding his shoes, stands there for a moment, then walks back past them to make it look like he just happened to cross paths with them as he was finishing up at the beach. He claims that he knew Dickie from Princeton, latching on to Herbert's error in judgment and hoping that Dickie is too polite or forgetful to catch him in the lie. Dickie replies by teasing Tom about how pale he is, which Tom plays off like a joke, but in a way that gives the appearance that he finds the comment slightly hurtful. This plays off of Marge's good manners, who invites Tom to dine with them. So on one hand, this makes it look like Tom manipulates Dickie and Marge into letting him into their lives; alternately, it could have just been a natural product of the situation. But as the film progresses, it becomes less and less likely that these coincidences occur on accident. This speaks to Dickie's attitude toward Tom as their relationship continues. Dickie begins to notice Tom's oddly possessive behavior toward him and his lifestyle, which makes him increasingly suspicious that Tom is running a con on him and he ultimately confronts him about this little by little. Tom acts shocked, making the confrontation look like a betrayal of their friendship; but Tom has been operating under the assumption that Dickie is stupid or too trusting to catch on. That is ultimately Tom's greatest flaw; he secretly believes himself to be superior to the people he hurts or lies to, and this is when his lies start to fall apart. It is evident that Dickie's father is kind of a rich dope, but his kid is not. Tom preys on the kindness of others, or at least their naivete. He believes that because he lacks their privilege that he is at liberty to leech off of it because of his talent at forgery and mimicry...because he believes himself to be more deserving and smarter than them. The irony is that despite his economic standing, Tom has more entitlement issues than practically any of the people who he exploits. Whenever others question his motives, he tries to play it off as a misunderstanding, or he acts like he is the victim. He casually insinuates to Marge that Dickie is "abandoning" them to make her lean on him more. He criticizes Dickie's friend, Freddie Miles (Philip Seymour Hoffman), as uncultured or uncouth at the opera because Freddie is wise to his game. In many cases when Tom appears to be on the verge of being revealed, he tries to spin events to make it look like everything is playing into his master plan; but Tom ultimately resorts to murder in more than one instance when the chips are down. That his schemes ultimately collapse in such a lethal way shows that he is hardly the impervious mastermind which he believes himself to be at his core.
There are multiple ways to interpret Tom's relationships in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Although only subtext in the source material, the film makes frequent suggestions that Tom may be homosexual. He makes comments to Dickie that suggest more than just a brotherly infatuation with the confident and dynamic Princeton grad, like implying that he would like to join him in the bathtub. But after Tom kills Dickie, in what superficially appears to be an argument gone awry on a dinghy, Tom leverages his aptitude for mimicking Dickie and passes as him in Rome, altering his hairstyle and mannerisms to match, and even reuniting with Meredith and teasing a blossoming romance with her yet to come. Tom even removes his glasses to complete the disguise--as he observes to Dickie, like "Clark Kent"--which suggests that they were just an affectation the whole time. Regardless of any sexual attraction, Tom wants to be Dickie. Tom sees Dickie's life as everything that he should have, and devotes himself wholly to maintaining the charade. And after Tom kills Dickie and fabricates evidence to give Marge the impression that he is just getting cold feet over their engagement. Marge confides in another friend named Peter Smith-Kingsley (Jack Davenport), who Tom latches onto as well, and apparently seduces. Homosexuality has been a theme in virtually all of the works adapted from Highsmith, presumably because she was one herself, but also because of the content in her other books, like "The Price of Salt" (later adapted into Carol). Consider, for example, that same undercurrent which is present in the character of Bruno in Strangers on a Train, which was also adapted from one of her novels. In The Talented Mr. Ripley, it seems more likely that Tom is not truly a person for whom sexuality makes any difference save that it allows him to maintain the (albeit fraudulent) lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. If he has to play a part to engender himself into an elite inner circle, so be it. For Tom, discarding friends and lovers that have become a liability is all too easy, which he proves at the conclusion of the film. Both the novel and the movie are a kind of riff on "The Great Gatsby", in that Tom moves into a world of hedonism and elitism, but in this case Tom is not merely an observer, but an intruder...a threat, even if he downplays this in the extreme. Tom remains an persistent enigma, although he teasingly tries to reveal his inner self at subtle moments in the movie. As he is talking about one thing to Peter, for inscance, he interjects details which are clearly meant to describe himself, like about a "basement" where all of the "demons" that make up our past dwell, and how he is too terrified to reveal that past to anyone. But because Tom is a liar, the question always lingers, is always unanswered: is Tom making this up too, or has something else deep down driven him along this path of darkness and deception? Would we even trust the answer if we got one?
Recommended for: Fans of a vivacious and heady thriller where attitudes toward the protagonist shift at the drop of a hat. The Talented Mr. Ripley is a complex and nuanced thriller filled with a cast of talented actors, many of whom star in roles that would help to define their careers.