The Talented Mr. Ripley

Rating:
Summary: Slow, and I mean sloooooow. :P
Review: There are some good things about this movie such as the cast and the settings. The scenery is gorgeous, paticularly one scene of Ripley walking past the HUGE stone feet of a giant ruined statue and Jude Law makes a damn good Dickie Greenleaf.

But there are too many problems with the movie The biggest flaw of all is the speed, or lack thereof. A scene that sums up the speed nicely is when Ripley tells one of Dickie's friends that Dickey was out to dinner the friend goes "I don't believe he's out to dinner, it's 6:30. If you said he was at lunch, then I'd believe you." If you can imagine waiting for lunch at six thirty then you can imagine waiting for this movie to take off.

The second biggest problem is the ending, IT'S NO ENDING! It doesn't resolve anything it doesn't answer any questions. An ending where Ripley gets away would have been just as satisfying as one where he gets caught but it ends neither way. The story still isn't over, nothings settled, it justs- AARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

To sum it up, don't watch this movie, go have lunch somewhere in Italy instead. You may wait just as long for anything to happen but you'll be more satisfied when it's over.

Rating:
Summary: Less than the sum of the parts
Review: If you add up all the various aspects of this film, it should have been terrific. It had a hot and talented young cast, all of whom gave good to great performances. It had wonderful locations, costumes, props and music. It had an intriguing plot. And yet by the end all I felt was ennui.

This was a case of a director who couldn't induce the full potential out of his various resources. Anthony Minghella does a fine job on the cinematography and choice of beautiful locations in Italy, but his crafting of the story left it predictable and flaccid. This was supposed to be both a character study and a thriller. It was inadequate on both counts.

In a well made character study the viewer will come to understand the motivations of the characters. This film never delivers in this regard. The only character that was well developed was Dickie (Jude Law). Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) was a mystery, just a hanger on. Meredith (Cate Blanchett) was nothing more than a plot device. But the biggest reason it came up short was because the motivation of Ripley (Matt Damon) was left too ambiguous. Was Ripley a cunning con man orchestrating a grand caper, an inept interloper who bungled his way through a propitious opportunity, a victim of circumstances, an unrequited gay lover who committed a crime of passion and then needed to cover his trail? Take your pick. Minghella doesn't tell the story in a way that makes this clear.

As a thriller, it lacked surprise. Every murder was telegraphed. The private investigator gives Ripley a pass at the end, obviating the need for Ripley to provide some clever explanation for all the inconsistencies. There was not a single twist in the entire film. It had all the intrigue of playing open handed bridge.

For all the raves I've read about Matt Damon's performance, I found it rather uneven. Sometimes he came across as a clever mastermind and at others a wounded puppy. It seemed like he wasn't really sure how to play the character. Again, I put the responsibility for this on Minghella. I'd call it a generally good performance of a difficult character, but not even close to his dynamism in 'Good Will Hunting'.

This was a shining moment for Jude Law who gave a career performance as Dickie. He basically stole the show out from under Damon's nose. He endowed his character with exuberance, and a cavalier live-for-today attitude that made him charismatic despite his callousness and irresponsibility. I enjoyed his performance in the unheralded 'Music From Another Room' but this one was even better. If he keeps improving like this, he will be a force to be reckoned with.

I rated this film a 6/10 on the strength of Law's performance and the cinematography. The telling of the story fell flat and robbed this film of its real potential.

Rating:
Summary: I would rather shoove a spoon down my throat
Review: This film was simple awful. While i watched it in theatre i was debating if i should shoove my spoon that i had gotten with my icee down my throat so that i would be entertained. This was a sick movie that someone would have to pay me to go see. If you buy this movie then you must also like to stick needles in your body because both are painfully stupid. Thanks for your time. I hope you found this review helpful.

Rating:
Summary: the touching mr.rpley
Review: i know that most of the people who watched this film found it boring and meaningless but personally i found it fascinating tom ripley is a person who needs to be loved and wishes to receive importance that is why he was ready to give dickie his life because he gave him such importance and showed him that he is somebody interesting who is not rejected from the society like tom ripley thought himself to be however dickie who gets bored quickly got bored with tom no sooner and wanted him to go away and ofcourse htis was a great shock for ripley because once again he saw himself as a rejected person and it seems to me that tom ripley can`t hold such shock and frustration of dickie so he kills him . this is actually the charceter of tom ripley he yearns for love and care because he lacks self-confidence, lonely, and belongs to a low social class .---

Rating:
Summary: 'Ripley' is a case--believe it or not!
Review: Oh, what a tangled web they weave! And the talented Tom Ripley has no problem morphing from one personality, one lie, one character to another. Amoral he is and amoral he intends to stay.

In "The Talented Mr. Ripley," Matt Damon deserved his Oscar nomination as he chameleons himself from one predicament (or one privileged setting) to another as Hollywood chooses to adapt a real thriller. Author Patricia Highsmith's Mr. Ripley is far more graphic and her novels are far more intense--yes, frightening--than this movie provides. That said, however, credit is to be given for this cinematic effort. Damon, with this role, certainly provides the evidence that he is more than a one-dimensional actor (and more than a pretty face and body!).

Certainly Damon's portray of this "homocidal" maniac is convincing and, as in any story where the anti-hero is the pivotal character, naturally, some aspects of his personality are palatable. He is at times most ingratiating, pleasant, and when he suffers abuse from his host (Jude Law is Dickie Greenleaf), we can feel sympathy. His is a character that feels no boundaries--and certainly no remorse--for his actions. He moves from one dilemma to another with such ease that even that is frightening. Director Anthony Minghella ("The English Patient") has the perfect backdrop for a film--Italy. Set in the late 50s, the film seems to capture all the detail, the nuances, the atmosphere of that time, and quite convincingly. Easily, Minghella could have made the film with more graphic violence (after all, Patricia Highsmith didn't spend time in a Texas insane asylum for nothing!), but the film, really, keeps the blood and gore to a minimum (thankfully).

Gwyneth Paltrow comes through strongly as well (as Greenleaf's finance) and with such disarming charm. (It has always been a pleasure to see her in a film.)

In "The Talented Mr. Ripley," we have a film that certainly leaves one disturbed. It is powerful--but disturbing.

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Rating:
Summary: An intelligent and intense thriller
Review: The Talented Mr. Ripley is one of the most intelligent and intense thrillers I have recently seen. The actors are superb and the story is incredible.

After having been sent to Italy by a Mr. Greenwielf, Ripley meets Dickie (Jude Law), Mr. Greenwielf's wayward son. Mr. Greenwielf wants his son back in America, but Ripley has other ideas. He has integrated himself with Dickie and his fiance Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow). His obsession with Dickie's lifestyle and good looks is obvious from the very beginning. What does Ripley want? That's very simple: Dickie. The story takes some interesting twists and turns.

This is a great film. Matt Damon's portrayal of Ripley is excellent. Gwyneth Paltrow is also great, but the real treat in this film is Jude Law; I'll be hearing a lot from this talented actor in the future.

The Talented Mr. Ripley is a very well-crafted thriller that will capture you. I guarantee it!

Rating:
Summary: The Devious Mr. Ripley
Review: The Talented Mr. Ripley is an entertaining tale about Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), who fakes his way into meeting the well to do Greenleaf family, and slowly ursurps the role of Dickie Greenleaf. Matt Damon probably gives one of the strongest performances of his career. There are many strong supporting roles as well. Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dickie's Buddy Freddie Miles (Remember Dusty from Twister), Gwenyth Paltrow as Marge Sherwood, and Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf all give amazing performances and really add to the complexity of this story. There are so many great things about this movie, the music, the locations, and the acting. This movie did not fare well on the big screen and may have to do with its length. It is a rather lengthy movie at 2 Hours and 19 minutes and does seem to move a little slow in a couple of places. If it wasnt for that, I would give this one 5 stars. I highly recommend picking this one up today.

Rating:
Summary: Something is wrong
Review: This film by Anthony Mighella is perfect in many aspects, such as esthetics and acting. Still it is not great. The complexities of Mr. Repley's personality were simplified too much, and one has the feeling that a great opportunity was wasted. This film is a failure from that point of view: it had all the conditions to be a masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Notes on Mr. Ripley
Review: The Talented Mr. Ripley, is a film that goes well beyond the reviewer's grasp. It is a film, rich in complexities, coupled with a technical brilliance that makes us stop in our tracks to be awed by its composition. Its theme begins with a Jamesian plot (most closely resembling The Ambassadors) then spins into film noir so breathlessly, so gracefully that it takes our minds a bit to catch up.

The film begins with the presentaton of Mr. Tom Rippley, a piano tuner an aspiring classical musician and a a hotel attendant, who is able to initially deceive a shipping tycoon into going to Europe to rescue his son,to bring him back to the states. The only difference is age between Ripley and the character of Lambert Stetson from The Ambassadors.

The parent trusts his son and Ripley in not being caught up with those European influences that would corrupt those pure American sensibilities. There are moments , in the first movement of the film that shows us Ripley's authentic sensibility.

An example is, when in his attendant uniform snecking to play measures of Bach's Italien Concerto and being shooed away by an attentant immerses us (as illustrated again a number of times throughout the film) into the character of Ripley's essential softness and vulnerability. That this is balanced by a clear, calculating razor sharp awareness of his surroundings and his manipulatives ways in placing himself amid this "old wealth"; a closed social order that he is permitted to bask and partake of. He is Clyde Griffith from An Americn Tragedy, but with a stronger more aggresive way of handling that rather dim couple of Marsha and Dickie. There are also comic echoes of Paul Pennypaker from Waugh's Decline and Fall here that also lends credence to his social aspirations, a feeling of being comfortable with his deceptions, and never ultimately having to pay the piper.

Rating:
Summary: Wish the Talented Mr. Hitchcock Were Still Alive
Review: This movie, picturesquely set in a well depicted recreation of the Italy of the fifties, was an incredible desecration of the classic style of Hitchcock's film noir observations of the pure evilness of certain types of psychopathic id. I am recalling "Strangers on a Train" and "Shadow of a Doubt".

I was really looking forward to seeing Matt Damon portray the primary character, a non-entity who takes on the personality of a Princeton reprobate (Jude Law, nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor) living in idle luxury off his "allowance" in Italy, together with his fiance, played by Gwyenth Paltrow. Paltrow seems to have studied Audrey Hepburn's breathy voice and mannerisms to portray her role as the fifties style, pretty, but weak and overbred, upperclass fiance. She does a good job, but the role is essentially minor. That the role is minor is a typical deficit in this off balance movie.

Jude Law, as the Princeton "bad boy", does a good job as well, but he is not worthy of the nomination he got for supporting actor. Why? Because the script is perfectly awful and he is forced to play his part within the major limitations of the script. I liked seeing him tear it up in a jazz dive but the charisma he is supposed to have, and the classy background he was supposed to be born to, was not conveyed clearly enough to me. He was as ill served as Paltrow in this movie.

Now, on the the greatest disappointment of this film. This was the film I intended to watch to decide if Matt Damon is really any good as an actor. I am sorry to say that he was incredibly inept in sustaining my interest in this movie. He portrays, here, the lousiest psychopath I have ever had the non pleasure of watching onscreen. It is usually interesting to find out why an amoral person is capable of doing the awful things he or she does. What were his motives? Well, if you can stand the boredom of waiting this movie out, Damon will spell them out for you about five-eighths of the way through. I dare you to care at that point. His facial expressions run the gamut from his usual teeth baring, ingenuous, open smile, to that half sneering, half open smile he had in "Good Will Hunting". How has he gotten so far as an actor? I am astounded that this movie got any good reviews at all. It was interminable, poorly written, and had only one thing going for it: the scenery of Italy lensed through a big pile of American movie money.

best, jean