Modern Classics

#2 The Talented Mr Ripley

With the sad passing of Anthony Minghella yesterday I decided it was about time to do another extended review of a recent film that I believe to be near perfect in every way. You can find the first entry in this series here.

The Talented Mr Ripley starts at the very end of the film with a voice over that gives us a glimpse into the tortured mind of Tom Ripley. "If I could just go back. If I could rub everything out. Starting with myself. Starting with borrowing a jacket." As he delivers this briefest of prologues, Ripley's face is revealed, one shard at a time, each one symbolising the many different facets to his character. The movie's title is revealed on screen with the word "Talented" being last in a string of adjectives that flash up in turn, including Mysterious Lonely Confused Haunted and Passionate. Matt Damon is handed the unenviable task of portraying every single one of them over the 133 minutes if the film.

The jacket that Ripley mentions in the opening voiceover is a friend's, who he substitutes for during a musical performance overlooking Central Park. Among the very well off guests are Emily and Herbert Greenleaf, who spot the Princeton emblem on the borrowed jacket and comment on how he must have known their son Dickie, who also attended the University. Out of embarrassment Ripley doesn't correct their error and from this initial misunderstanding, Ripley soon agrees to travel to Italy to persuade Dickie, who is enjoying southern Italy at the expense of his father, to return home to New York and do something more worthwhile.

The opening exchanges fly by in a matter of minutes but so much is established here in terms of plot and characterisation that you imagine that Minghella (who wrote the screenplay) must have condensed scores of pages of the novel into just a few brief minutes on screen. Scenes are short, sharp but packed with insight and detail. Ripley is shown in the washroom brushing down the jackets of guests at a classical concert and is then seen playing on the main stage at 1.30am before a caretaker turns on the lights to stop him. In these two scenes, which take seconds, we understand that Tom Ripley is a nobody, yearning to be a somebody. There's no exposition here, the audience aren't treated as idiots with a Ripley voiceover telling us what we can see on screen. We understand Ripley wants to be someone. It may be for this reason that he introduces himself to an American tourist, Meredith Logue (Cate Blanchett), as Greenleaf at an Italian dock. It may also be, as the Greenleaf chauffeur puts it, that "the Greenleaf name opens a lot of doors".

Once in Italy, Ripley sets his sights on ingratiating himself with Dickie (Jude Law) and his girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow) by convincing Dickie he knew him at Princeton and pretending to be huge fan of Jazz since Dickie is obsessed by it. In no time at all Tom befriends the couple and is invited by Dickie to stay at his apartment.

I remember just prior to The Talented Mr Ripley's release in 1999 that Anthony Minghella was telling the press that "the whole world will be at Jude Law's feet" when they see the film. To this day it probably remains his most perfect role. Dickie is the carefree playboy who oozes confidence and a magnetism that has everyone enraptured. As Marge puts it to Tom later in the film "When you've got his attention you feel like you're the only person in the world." Law captures this perfectly.

Yet for this to be convincing those around him have to be faultless as well and Damon and Paltrow also deliver turns that should be regarded as highly as Law's was. When Dickie plays sax at a Jazz club early in the film, and invites Ripley on stage to sing along, there's a delight on Ripley's face that perfectly illustrates what Marge's point. They sing Tu vuo' fa' L'americano on stage and Damon doesn't take his eyes of Law for even a split second. It's perfect choices like that that build characterisation and help the viewer completely understand these characters.

The other side of Marge's illustration of the world of Dickie this that while you have his attention "it's like the sun shines on you and it's glorious, then he forgets you and it's very very cold." Everyone in the film feels the cold shoulder of Dickie at one point or another, but none feel the pain that this brings as intensely as Tom, not even Marge. Dickie suggests that Tom should return home once he can no longer pay his way, and after Tom suggests he return in the new year under his own steam, Dickie rebuffs the idea, saying instead that he'll be moving in with Marge. An argument ensures in which Tom cracks open Dickie's skull with the end of an oar. It's a beautifully filmed scene withe Tom and Dickie aboard a small motor boat floating in the middle of the pristine bay of San Remo - the water as intensely blue as the cloudless sky.

We cut to the same location minutes, maybe hours later. As Minghella puts it in his script: 'The boat rocks, gently, the sun sparkling indifferently on the waves. Ripley lies by Dickie in the bottom of the boat, in the embrace he's always wanted.'

Jude Law's absence from the rest of the film is, incredibly, not felt at all as the tension mounts with every lie Ripley tells to the police, to Marge and to Dickie's family as Ripley keeps everyone at arm's length, trying to conceal what has happened to him. Tom passes himself off as Ripley, withdrawing money with his passport and checking into hotels, in order to create the illusion that Dickie is still alive.

Suspicions grow, particularly a friend of Dickie's: Freddie Miles, played by the impeccable Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman makes a brilliant entrance earlier in the film: "Don't you want to fuck every woman you see. Just once,". Freddie Miles is not quite the playboy Dickie is, but certainly has the confidence and the swagger and sees through Ripley straight away, sneering at him when he reminds Dickie not to forget to catch the 8 o-clock train.

In the best scene in the film Miles pays a visit to what he's been told is Dickie's apartment, only to find Tom there and Dickie nowhere in sight:

FREDDIE
Did this place come furnished? It doesn't
look like Dickie. Horrible isn't it? - so
bourgeois.

Now he's poking at the Hadrian bust.

RIPLEY
You should watch that!

FREDDIE
In fact the only thing which looks like
Dickie is you.

RIPLEY
Hardly.

FREDDIE
Have you done something to your hair?

Ripley starts to smile, his eyes darting around the room.

RIPLEY
Freddie, do you have something to say?

FREDDIE
I think I'm saying it.

And the thing is he is saying it: in every word, in every gesture, in every disparaging look.

Damon's perfect here too and completely shines in scenes where Ripley is confronted by someone. He's note perfect when being accused by the police in Venice, and again when confronted by Marge back in Rome. Marge finds Dickie's rings, which he had promised to never remove, amongst Tom's possessions. He tries to convince her of an innocent explanation but fails and loses his towel in the process. He returns to the bathroom, scrabbles around for some sort of weapon, which he secretes in the pocket of a bathrobe and again tries to convince Marge of a reason for him having the rings.

Tom desperately tries to persuade Marge that Dickie gave the rings to him, with such intensity that he doesn't notice he's gripping so hard on the razor that he cuts his hand open. Blood drips from his robe. Marge is retreating all the time as he advances, eager to appear sincere and sympathetic, but actually appearing more ominous and calculating. Marge is seemingly the only person in the world who knows the truth and as she backs away from him, her face reveals terror, devastation and pure hatred in equal measure. Paltrow is absolutely breathtaking here she responds with "I don't believe a single word you've said" and it's astonishingly convincing. The scene ends with another a friend of Marge's, Peter Smith Kinglsey, arriving at the front door. Marge, terrified, screams and sobs into his arms.

I would go so far as to say that this film contains the very best performances in the careers of Jude Law, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon. All are sensationally gifted actors, amongst the very best of their generation and they all given note-perfect turns in Minghella's film. Credit to a director who not only had the foresight to bring such talent together, but to get the very best out of them. Paltrow, Hoffman and Blanchett are all Oscar winners, Law and Damon both nominees but I truly believe their work here is better than anything they've done since, and all have done some pretty amazing work -it's just that they're so good here that it eclipses anything else.

The film ends with Ripley destined to get away with the murder of Dickie but cursed to a life of loneliness. His chance at happiness with Peter Smith Kinglsey is vanquished when Meredith Logue runs into Ripley, who's on a cruise with Kinglsey, as he watches the sunset. I'm coming across as way too obsessed with this film here, but Matt Damon's line reading is just unbelievably good. Meredith calls out "Dickie" for she only knows Ripley by that name several times. He turns in disbelief greeting her with "Hello Meredith" - his voice filled with anguish and desperation. When she points out that she's traveling with family he knows at once that there is only one way out. Peter knows him as Ripley. Meredith knows him as Dickie. Peter and Meredith know each other. Someone has to go, and it can't be the one traveling with family in tow. His cries as he strangles Peter play over a closing shot of Ripley as he sits on his bed, staring blankly as the film closes with the exact shot with which it opens.

Anthony Minghella created a breathtaking film. It is stylish captivating and beautiful, featuring wonderful cinematography a haunting score and as detailed and thoughtful a screenplay as you could wish to see. Quite clearly the source novel is a brilliant piece of writing but Minghella's adaptation is simply perfect. He brings to life an array of characters that are vivid and dynamic. They evolve over the course of the film, none more so than the Mysterious Yearning Secretive Sad Lonely Troubled Confused Loving Musical Gifted Intelligent Beautiful Tender Sensitive Haunted Passionate and Talented Mr Ripley. Matt Damon plays every facet of his incredibly complex character to absolute perfection. It's just one of a number of world class performances that are realised in Minghella's masterpiece.

A+