| The Talented Mr. Ripley | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Anthony Minghella |
| Screenplay by | Anthony Minghella |
| Based on | The Talented Mr. Ripley byPatricia Highsmith |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | John Seale |
| Edited by | Walter Murch |
| Music by | Gabriel Yared |
Production companies |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 139 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40 million[2] |
| Box office | $128.8 million[2] |
The Talented Mr. Ripley is a 1999 Americanpsychological thriller film written and directed byAnthony Minghella, and based onPatricia Highsmith's1955 novel of the same title. Set in the 1950s, it starsMatt Damon asTom Ripley, a con artist who is sent from New York City to Italy to convince Dickie Greenleaf (played byJude Law), a rich and spoiled playboy, to return home. However, Dickie is not easily swayed, and Ripley becomes dangerously attached to him and his lifestyle.Gwyneth Paltrow,Cate Blanchett, andPhilip Seymour Hoffman also appear in supporting roles.
The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $128.8 million worldwide. It received fiveAcademy Award nominations, includingBest Adapted Screenplay andBest Supporting Actor for Law.
In 1958New York City, shipbuilding magnate Herbert Greenleaf, believing Tom Ripley attendedPrinceton with his son, Dickie, pays Tom $1,000[3] to travel to Italy and persuade him to return to the United States. Taking an ocean liner first-class, Tom pretends to be Dickie and befriends American socialite Meredith Logue.
In the seaside village of Mongibello, Tom befriends Dickie and his American girlfriend, Marge Sherwood, claiming to be a former Princeton classmate. He enjoys Dickie's extravagant lifestyle and becomes obsessed with Dickie himself, but Dickie's wealthy friend Freddie Miles distrusts Tom and treats him with contempt. Returning fromRome, Dickie becomes increasingly annoyed by Tom.
Dickie has impregnated and then spurns Silvana, a local woman who then drowns herself. Tom promises a guilt-ridden Dickie to keep the death a secret. After Herbert cuts off Tom's travel funds, Dickie cancels a trip toVenice and tells Tom that they should part ways. However, Dickie convinces Tom to take a final trip with him toSan Remo.
Aboard a small boat, Dickie says he is tired of Tom and is going to marry Marge, while Tom tells Dickie he is selfish and hurting everyone. Their argument becomes physical, and Tom strikes Dickie with an oar, killing him. Tom takes Dickie's belongings and scuttles the boat. Realizing that locals frequently mistake him for Dickie, Tom assumes his identity. Heforges a letter to Marge, convincing her that Dickie has left her and moved to Rome. Tom creates the illusion that Dickie is still alive by checking into one hotel as Dickie and another as himself, then fabricating an exchange of communications between the two. Through forgery, he is able to draw on Dickie's allowance on which he can live lavishly.
In Rome, Tom runs into Meredith, who still knows him as Dickie, and attends an opera with her family. His ruse is threatened when he unexpectedly runs into Marge and her friend, Peter Smith-Kingsley at the same opera. Tom rushes Meredith out of the opera house and rejects her advances. Later, Freddie shows up at Tom's apartment looking for Dickie. When the landlady addresses Tom as Dickie, Freddie realizes the fraud, so Tom fatally bludgeons him with a bust and disposes of his body. When Freddie's body is found, police visit the apartment to question "Dickie". Tom forges a suicide note for Dickie that claims responsibility for Freddie's death. Under his real name, Tom travels to Venice, where he again encounters Peter.
Herbert Greenleaf arrives in Italy, accompanied byprivate detective Alvin MacCarron. Tom is about to kill Marge after she discovers he has Dickie's ring, but Peter arrives and interrupts them. Marge is certain that Tom is culpable, but Herbert dismisses Marge's suspicions. MacCarron tells Tom the police are convinced that Dickie, who had a history of violence, murdered Freddie before killing himself. MacCarron also tells Tom that Herbert intends to bequeath a large portion of Dickie'strust fund to him, to reward his loyalty to Dickie and ensure his silence.
Cleared of his crimes, and with the income to finally live Dickie's lifestyle as himself, Tom boards a liner to Greece with Peter, who is implied to be Tom's lover. During the voyage, Tom runs into Meredith, who is sailing with family members. Tom kisses her and promises to talk later. Tom goes to Peter's cabin. Peter says he saw Tom kissing Meredith and demands answers. After apologizing for lying, a sobbing Tom fatally strangles Peter and returns to his cabin, alone.
This film was preceded by nearly 40 years byPurple Noon, a previous movie adaptation of the same Highsmith novel, directed byRené Clément and starringAlain Delon. Alain Delon (Tom Ripley) inPurple Noon (1960) is an important reference for the conception of the film.[4]William Horberg, the film’s producer, admired the visual style andDelon's performance inPlein soleil, but criticized the psychological foundations of this adaptation, which he considered to be reversed in comparison with Patricia Highsmith's novel.[4] To address this and remain more faithful to the original work, Minghella conceived a Ripley who does not embody perfection likeDelon, but rather an ordinary, envious individual who aspires to that perfection.[4] Horberg explains: "It wouldn't work for anAlain Delon to play our Ripley—he was too perfect. Instead, Minghella's concept was that Ripley longed tobeAlain Delon".[4]Matt Damon refers to the physical efforts required to approach this ideal: "I was supposed to look likeJude Law, which is impossible in the first place: it's like being told you have to look likeAlain Delon. I had to at least make my body look like his".[5]
The Guardian reported thatLeonardo DiCaprio declined the role that went to Matt Damon.[6] Anthony Minghella cast Damon, after seeing his performance inGood Will Hunting, because he felt Damon had the right mix of "credibility, warmth, and generosity" to engage the audience and help them understand how Ripley "thinks and operates".[7] The character of Meredith Logue, not present in the novel, was added by Minghella, with Cate Blanchett in mind. He was "entranced" with Blanchett, after meeting with her and surprised that she was actually interested in playing the small part. Minghella went on to write more scenes for the character, to expand her role.[7]
Minghella happened to see thedailies from a film starring Jude Law,The Wisdom of Crocodiles, that his wife, Carolyn Choa, was producing at the time. Impressed with Law's performance, he offered him the role of Dickie. In his "insane arrogance", as Law put it, he initially refused because he did not wish to play a "pretty boy". After learning of the cast Minghella was assembling and coming to understand that he would be "in safe hands" with Minghella, Law later accepted the part.[8]
Except for the beginning scenes filmed in New York City, the film was shot entirely on location in Italy. The cliffside resort town ofPositano and various villages on the islands ofIschia andProcida, nearNaples, were used to represent the fictional town of Mongibello.[9] Frequent and unpredictable rain hampered the production, with Minghella stating that "we had to deliver this gorgeous Mediterranean world, this beautiful world of Southern Italy, and we could never get Italy to turn beautiful...We would divide the scenes up, often into words, and go out and get two or three words and then, it would start to rain, and we'd have to go back in, again."[7] The scenes taking place in San Remo were filmed inAnzio, a resort town near Rome. Well-known locations included thePiazza Navona, theSpanish Steps andPiazza di Spagna in Rome, and theCaffè Florian in thePiazza San Marco in Venice.[9]
To prepare for the role of Ripley, Damon lost 30 pounds and learned to play the piano.[10] Law gained weight and learned to play the saxophone for his character; he also broke a rib, when he fell backward while filming the murder scene on the boat.[11]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes,The Talented Mr. Ripley holds an approval rating of 85% based on 142 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "With Matt Damon's unsettling performance offering a darkly twisted counterpoint to Anthony Minghella's glossy direction,The Talented Mr. Ripley is a suspense thriller that lingers."[12]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 76 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[13] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.[14]
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, calling it "an intelligent thriller" that is "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".[15] In her review forThe New York Times,Janet Maslin praised Law's performance: "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".[16]
Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A−" rating, andLisa Schwarzbaum wrote, "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, hisEagle Scout eyes fixed just a blink more than the calm gaze of any non-murdering young man. And in that opacity we see horror".[17]
Charlotte O'Sullivan ofSight & Sound 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".[18]Time named it one of the ten best films of the year and called it a "devious twist on the Patricia Highsmith crime novel".[19]
James Berardinelli gave the film two and a half stars out of four, calling it "a solid adaptation" that "will hold a viewer's attention", but criticized "Damon's weak performance" and "a running time that's about 15 minutes too long."[20] Berardinelli compared the film unfavorably with the previous adaptation,Purple Noon, which he gave four stars.[21] He wrote, "The remake went back to the source material, Patricia Highsmith'sThe Talented Mr. Ripley. The result, while arguably truer to the events of Highsmith's book, is vastly inferior. To say it suffers by comparison toPurple Noon is an understatement. Almost every aspect ofRené Clément's 1960 motion picture is superior to that of Minghella's 1999 version, from the cinematography to the acting to the screenplay. Matt Damon might make a credible Tom Ripley, but only for those who never experienced Alain Delon's portrayal."[22]
In his review forThe 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-wallamorality and triumphant evil leave too sour an aftertaste even for the most sophisticated anti-Hollywood palate".[23]
In his review forThe 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 un-thrilling thriller and bafflingly unconvincing character study".[24]
In her review forThe Village Voice,Amy Taubin criticized 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 turnsThe Talented Mr. Ripley into a splashy tourist trap of a movie. The effect is rather like reading theNational Enquirer in a café overlooking theAdriatic".[25]
DirectorFlorian Henckel von Donnersmarck has citedThe Talented Mr. Ripley as one of his favorite films of all time.[26]
The Talented Mr. Ripley is the third big-screen Ripley adaptation, followingPurple Noon (1960) andThe American Friend (1977). It was followed byRipley's Game (2002) andRipley Under Ground (2005), but none of the films form an official series. In April 2024, the television seriesRipley, also an adaptation of Highsmith's 1955 novel, was released.[31] The plot of the 2012 Indian Tamil movieNaan is loosely based on this film, but is narrated in a different setting.
A disguised Damon was credited under the "Dickie Greenleaf" name for his cameo in the filmDeadpool 2 (2018).[32]
