The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Directed by Anthony Minghella
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.
21 connections found
View:
21 films that influenced The Talented Mr. Ripley
What critics say influenced The Talented Mr. Ripley
The director adapted the script from the 1955 novel by Patricia Highsmith -- whose "Strangers On a Train" became one of Hitchcock's most disquieting classics.
I saw The Talented Mr. Ripley with a friend who had read the book (by Patricia Highsmith, who also wrote Strangers on a Train).
Ripley and his chilling adventures are the subject of five novels by the late Patricia High-smith, whose first book, "Strangers on a Train," was turned into the memorable Alfred Hitchcock film.
Alfred Hitchcock made "Strangers on a Train" (1951), based on one of her books.
And in a performance that should put him solidly in the running for this year's Best Actor Oscar, he not only penetrates to the core of Highsmith's vision (also seen in other excellent films such as Strangers on a Train and Wim Wenders' The American Friend) but adds inspired new strokes to her monstrously beguiling creation.
This time in a grander and more elaborate version, as Tom Ripley (Damon) is made into a closet homosexual and someone capable of killing anyone who interferes with his plans to assume someone else's identity -- which makes the crime thriller take on a slightly different meaning from the way Highsmith intended it (she also wrote the novel for the great Hitchcock film, "Strangers on a Train").
It has echoes of Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960).
"Ripley," which is obsessed with Hitchcock, alludes repeatedly to "Vertigo" and "Psycho," most obviously.
This is sorta kinda like in Hitchcock' overrated "Psycho", or more precisely like in one of my all-time favorites, Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver", in which you also get into the mind of a violent sociopath.
It has echoes of Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960).
"Ripley," which is obsessed with Hitchcock, alludes repeatedly to "Vertigo" and "Psycho," most obviously.
It has echoes of Vertigo (1958), North By Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960).
Advertisement
There's a lot of latter-day Hitch on display here, To Catch a Thief and Frenzy, and even a touch of Ren� Cl�ment, who last adapted the Highsmith novel and called it Plein soleil (Purple Noon).
There's a lot of latter-day Hitch on display here, To Catch a Thief and Frenzy, and even a touch of Ren� Cl�ment, who last adapted the Highsmith novel and called it Plein soleil (Purple Noon).
Not since Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now has a film used the patina'd beauty of Italy to such intense psychological effect.
Then there was Wim Wenders better version, "The American Friend (77)," where Dennis Hopper got into the sinister con man's character and showed how his criminal guilt was related to Germany's postwar guilt.
Advertisement
The impish xylophone riff that plays when Tom tells his lies, the extras whose clothes and postures make them look like escapees from La Dolce Vita, the million little verbal stratagems by which Tom manipulates everyone around him all work together to create a cunning little machine of a movie.
The ever resourceful Tom enjoys la dolce vita to such a great extent that when it looks like the good times will finally end, he masterminds a convoluted plot that he hopes will place him permanently on top.
The carefully selected locations and scenery evoke the mood of La Dolce Vita in the 1950s, the film composition and editing are tight and effective, and the acting performances from Damon and the supporting cast are outstanding.
The impish xylophone riff that plays when Tom tells his lies, the extras whose clothes and postures make them look like escapees from La Dolce Vita, the million little verbal stratagems by which Tom manipulates everyone around him ?
Murch's credits include The Godfather trilogy (1972, 74, 90), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), and The English Patient (1996).