The Talented Mr Ripley

Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Matt Damon in The Talented Mr Ripley

I've been away on holiday, so apologies for my complete lack of reviews. My esteemed colleague has done an unbelievable amount in my absence and I'm sure you'll all agree that the site and the blog both look amazing!!!

So, anyway, The Talentless Mr Ripley... I really thought I'd hate this as it has two of my most hated performers, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, both of whom deliver huge dollops of unconvinceingness in equal measure (except for Law in AI, where I like him), for me at least. Though I know that opinion is not generally reflected across the film-watching public. Paltrow is at her worst here, lending nothing to a character I didn't care a jot for and her plight (such as it was) meant nothing to me. Law, however, was good, though as the arrogant, philandering, self-obsessed, vacuous playboy, maybe that's not all that surprising. He's bettered by Matt Damon, however, who delivers a sophisticated, troubled, performance. It's not a role he would have been my first choice for (perhaps, ironically, Philip Semymour Hoffman would have been up there) but he pulls it off well and is ultimately let down by the script and the subject matter. It just doesn't work, it didn't hold my attention and I didn't care about any of the characters, with the possible exception of Meredith Logue, played by the always excellent Cate Blanchett, who manages to lend a surprising and welcome vulnerability to another (on-the-face-of-it) vacuous character. She lends something deeper to an ultimately shallow and unengaging world. It ends up playing like an F. Scott Fitzgerald story gone hideously off kilter and, despite a solid performance from Damon at the film's centre, fails to hit the spot. Finally, I should mention Hoffman, who is brilliant as the utterly obnoxious and detestable Freddie Miles. There is - regrettably - not enough of him.

In all honesty, I was very surprised how much I disliked this. I've never heard a bad word about it and I've just noticed that it (and its performers) feature prominently in my esteemed colleague's lists for 1999. I hope we're not heading for WW3, but I just didn't get this, it did nothing for me, I cared nothing for the characters and was, at times, not far from switching off. Ultimately I found it hollow and unengaging though, equally, it's far from being the worst thing I've seen.

D+