The Talented Mr. Ripley

UK Release Date. 25 February 2000
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 19 mins
Director. Anthony Minghella
Cast. Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Jack Davenport, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow.
Rating. 68%

Review.

Based on the series of books by Patricia Highsmith, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley tells the story of Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) and his relationship with well-to-do playboy, Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law). Ripley is quick to accept an invitation from Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn) to visit Italy, purportedly with the aim of luring his rebellious son back home. But having sampled La Dolce Vita for himself, he can't face losing his new-found life of leisure in Mongibello.

Minghella's elegant adaptation very much feels like a sumptuous melodrama from the 1950s, filled with beautiful people, idyllic locations and luscious colour.  The director also assembled a young, but impressive, cast; Matt Damon and Jude Law are joined by Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jack Davenport. 

Damon and Law successfully manage to make thoroughly awful people into charming, almost likeable, characters. Damon, in particular, portrays Ripley as initially shy, almost naive, but as the film progresses it is all too apparent that Ripley is neither. Rather, obsequious, calculating and ruthless in equal measure. A disturbing and despicable sociopath.

The opening two-thirds of The Talented Mr. Ripley are enthralling, but as Ripley's sadistic streak begins to become ever-more apparent the film runs into problems with the increasingly entangled sequence of events threatening to expose Ripley's fabrications. Even if you have not read the book or seen the, some would say superior, 1960 French adaption, Plein Soleil starring Alain Delon, it becomes all too obvious the direction the plot is heading in.

Minghella's hypnotic and homoerotic adaptation has the same kind of complex allure that made The English Patient so mesmerising. The director is also acutely aware of how class, money and sex shape desire and resentment, and of the distinctions between presenting a facade to the world and the more radical practice of reinvention. It is into these registers that Minghella weaves the most intriguing undertones.