Rating: 
Summary: Sorry no car chases
Review: There are a lot of people who, liking this film, have already reviewed this film stylishly at length, so I won't try to match that. What I will say is that if you don't like this film it must be because it isn't your SORT of film. Maybe you need car chases and your films to have no worrying homosexual themes running through them. I can see how Jock Quarterback from Kansas might have a problem with liking this film. It is anyway, a beautiful and disturbing two and a half hours.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful... awfully boring, too.
Review: Pretentious, slow moving, and unbelievable. I felt embarrassed for Matt Damon throughout this entire film. He cannot turn in a convincing performance to save his life. How the other characters in the film couldn't see through Mr. Ripley's shallowness is surreal. This astonishment totally subverts the audience's ability to suspend disbelief and begins to sink this tawdry film almost from the first reel. The most excruciatingly dull film experience I've had in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Booooorrrring!
Review: This is without a doubt the dullest film I have seen in a long , long, long time. I've seen more stimulating french films. This film is credited as a psychological thriller and I suppose if you spent a few months in a sensory deprivation chamber you may be mildly aroused. I gave this film three chances, thinking I had missed something from the first veiwing but upon the third sitting I realized there is nothing to miss. Damon's performance is completely pedestrian and could have been duplicated by absolutely anyone. The story is the stuff Nyquil is made of and how any of characters are fooled by Thomas Ripley is the ony mystery in this insult of a film. Too bad zero stars is not an option...
Rating: 
Summary: UNNECESSARY REMAKE
Review: The 1960 FRENCH movie with ALAIN DELON was perhaps not perfect,but it had a great atmospheric feeling to it.This remake simply doesn't ring true ,with MATT DAMON miscast as RIPLEY.The homosexual overtones in PATRICIA HIGHSMITH's novels were often disturbing in her time.The ITALIAN locations are obviously nice to look at,but can carry a movie by itself.Don't waste your precious time watching this pretentious movie.If you want to hear MY FUNNY VALENTINE,buy FRANK SINATRA's SONGS FOR YOUNG LOVERS-SWING EASY.When are they going to stop making those unnecessary remakes that HOLLYWOOD is so fond of between more important projects?
Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent Thriller
Review: I was very surprised that I liked this movie!! It is one of the best faux Hitchcock films I have ever seen. The film's publicity was misleading, it made it seemed like Matt Damon's character was much more predatory and ruthless than he is in the actual film. In fact, Mr. Ripley unintentionally falls into his life of deceit and crime in true film noir form (the movie this film most reminded me of was the low-budget noir classic DETOUR, I guess this is the uptown version). Matt Damon is excellent and this was the biggest surprise for me. I thought GOOD WILL HUNTING was very overrated and that his performance in that particular movie was very TV-movieish so I avoided his later films but he gives a multi-faceted performance here. Gwyneth Paltrow was excellent and I really enjoyed Cate Blanchett whom I have never seen before. She is lovely and more likable and warm than most actresses who play upperclass women. I'm hoping she becomes a major film star here in America. I am going against the tide I guess, but I thought Jude Law was rather mediocre. He exudes a decadent smarminess here that just doesn't seem appropiate for the character who should be something of a heartless, All-American golden boy. Philip Seymour Hoffman is worse, playing his part with a hamminess that is out of synch with the acting of the rest of the cast (as well as a cartoonish "rich boy" accent that sounds like Jim Backus' Mr. Howell from Gilligan's Island). Don't read this paragraph if you haven't seen the movie. The ending was a surprise but quite credible given Ripley's ultimate mindset; he was quite capable handling people who were indifferent or patronizing to him by lying through his teeth, but with all his self-hatred having two people who seemed to want to love him threw him as much as having found himself still caught in a web he had escaped. The movie is a little long (I would have cut the jazz club scene which serves no real purpose) but I was never bored.
Rating: 
Summary: Ultimately, Too Negative to Recommend...
Review: The Talented Mr. Ripley is the story of a young, gentleman psychopath set in 1958 in America and Europe. Mr. Ripley, played by Matt Damon is a young man with a terribly negative and destructive self-image. He tunes pianos at Princeton University for a living but wears a dress jacket with the Princeton logo on the pocket. A captain of industry type sees him tuning a piano at a concert, assumes he went to Princeton and asks him if he knew his son, who went there. Mr. Ripley pretends he did. The wealthy man asks if Mr. Ripley would go to Europe and convince his playboy son to return. He is going to pay him for this. Mr. Ripley goes to Italy, finds the son and pretends to have known him at Princeton. He becomes a parasite. Mr. Ripley convinces the son to let him live in his house, go on vacations, with him, share his life, etc. Mr. Ripley greatest desire is to live just like the tycoon and the playboy. In achieving his goal, the con man gradually morphs into a murder. The shame of all this is that Mr. Ripley is a multiply talented man and through legitimate means could probably have achieved anything he wanted. The cinematography is excellent. There are brief, visually stimulating scenes of a street in New York's meat packing district and of Italian villages. Both characters were into modern jazz. The few Jazz club scenes and sounds were magnificent. It's fun to see how the privileged and moneyed youth of the 1950's enjoyed themselves in Europe while we imagine ourselves doing the same. Unfortunately, none of this could compensate for the story, which has no redeeming value or interest. Don't waste your money on this one.
Rating:
Summary: "Why do boys always play at killing each other"?
Review: The Talented Mr. Ripley reminded me of nothing quite so much as Ridley Scott's Hannibal. That in itself is no bad thing, for Hannibal is a terrific piece of cinema, and in any case The Talented Mr. Ripley predates Hannibal by a couple of years. It is certainly true that Hannibal borrows much from Mr. Ripley in terms of style - and for that matter, a number of the set pieces. The Opera scene; the coffee emporia, the perfume; the high-end dolce vita, counterpointed against the subject's grisly deeds - these hallmarks of Hannibal all flow thickly through Mr. Ripley. Where Ridley Scott was canny, though, was in upgrading the experience from coach to first class - Hannibal's Florence is an altogether more sophisticated, more lushly shot, and better understood rendition of what is so alluring to outsiders about Italy than Ripley's equivalent. Minghella tends to punt for the familiar, picture postcard scenes, relying on obvious tourist locations (Spanish Steps, Trevisi Fountain etc) but for all that fails to capture Italy with anything like the same wit or erudition. The films works very well fundamentally as a richly shot (if badly overlong) psychological thriller - in places it is as tense as to be almost un-watchable - but I'm not sure what it achieves at a more substantial level. In this regard, your two and a half hours are scantly rewarded. I had much the same reaction to The English Patient: Beautiful to look at, sweeping and epic; all very brooding and meaningful, but for what? Minghella's picture has enough style and is well enough acted and directed to raise the expectation that something significant is afoot, but despite much promise, nothing (other than the thriller) materialises. For example, the Opera (and Ripley's reaction to it) seems to be building to a point of some weight, but the point is never ultimately made. Perhaps, I'll grant you, I just didn't get it - but on first viewing I was left creasing my brow. Similarly, the conclusion to the film, while carefully (painstakingly, almost) constructed, ends up being confusing and more than a little, well, inconclusive. Again, it was as if the film were on the way to the point, but never quite made it. This isn't to say Minghella doesn't try: a number of figurative devices recur during the film, but mostly they are (or their execution is) clumsy: swinging, fractured mirrors, shadows and lighting dancing on faces, rippling (ha!) water fading in and out of focus, and an almost hammy explosion of disturbed pigeons every time Mr. Ripley crosses a square (Hannibal borrowed this device too, but put it to much eerier effect). All these clever cinematic devices add critically to the length of the picture, without adding to the sum total of its message. These objections shouldn't detract from the fact that Mr. Ripley is a very clever, tense thriller. Jude Law turns in a terrific performance, and Gwyneth Paltrow gives an intelligent, understated, underrated portrayal of the long suffering cuckold. And while I can't bring myself to like Matt Damon, you have to admire his technical skill as an actor.
Rating:
Summary: whoa...
Review: Here is the basic overview of the movie: Tom Ripley [Damon] is a reserved and odd guy, who believes it's better to be a "fake somebody than a real nobody". He gets a perfect opportunity to prove his point, when a wealthy shipbuilder pays him to go to Italy and bring back his easygoing and "playboy" son, Dickie Greenleaf [Law]. Ripley tells Dickie that he was an old classmate of his at Princeton, but Dickie doesn't remember. Dickie and his girlfriend Marge [Paltrow] welcome Ripley into their lives, and Ripley is soon fascinated and drawn into Dickie's lifestyle..complete with jazz music, glamourous trips around Italy, and of course, the women, haha. The more that Ripley gets drawn into Dickie's lifestyle, the more he craves it..and the more that Dickie is "creeped out" by Tom Ripley. After a confrontation between Ripley and Dickie, Ripley's life is changed forever..leading to lies, impersonation, and even murder. This movie has so many crazy twists, almost any prediction about the ending could be true. You'll have to see it though to find out:) This is one CRAZY movie. At first, I was really hesitant upon seeing it, because the length of it scared me [almost 3 hours long!], plus, one of my friends that saw it in the theatres told me that it wasn't all that good. But as some of my friends and I were watching movies one day at my house, I lost a bet so we had to end up watching this, haha. I'll admit, the first 15 minutes of this movie was BORING, I'm surprised I didn't fall asleep. But that's also how I am, I hate the introductions in movies, I like getting right to the point. I'm glad I stayed with this movie though, it was well worth the wait, even more so.. Plus, Matt Damon is one of my favorite actors..and after having watched this movie, I have another favorite actor..JUDE LAW! The casting is so awesome in this movie, every role was played well by each actor, and at times you forget that Matt Damon is well..Matt Damon because he portrays Tom Ripley so well. Oh, and the first nightclub scene where Jude Law & Matt Damon are onstage singing "Tu Vuo' Fa L'Americano" is classic! I can't emphasize enough how suspensful this movie was..especially the last half of the movie. It's like it kept jerking you around..right when you think you've figured out what's going to happen, something new and unexpected happens in the plot. So the plot thickens, right? It IS a long movie, but the time literally flies by while watching it. If you like suspense and unpredictable plot twists, then this movie is perfect for you!:)
Rating:
Summary: pass the prozac.
Review: Well gosh. So I just watched the movie. Somehow even though it got a fair amount of press and most of my friends saw it, I never had before, and I'd never really picked up on the plot. I remember I wanted to rent it one night but my boyfriend refused. He'd seen it and he said he couldn't go through that again. Now I see what he was talking about. This is one of those films that just makes you smack your forehead over and over again in disbelief and horror. I won't get deep into the plot; suffice it to say that Damon's Tom Ripley weaves rather a tangled web for himself and for all who are unfortunate enough to come into contact with him. He is a consummate character study in duplicity. To begin with, it's the 1950's, and he likes guys. That'll teach you to lie. He's sent to Italy to round up some loaded tycoon's spoiled brat son ("Dickie," played by Jude Law), and wouldn't you know it, he promptly falls for the brat and his romantic lifestyle. This inevitably leads to serious trouble, since Dickie is manifestly heterosexual and hooked up with an even-more-mannered-and-posh-than-usual Gwyneth Paltrow. As soon as he begins to suspect Ripley's secret crush, he turns on him and tries to get rid of him - but it's too late. Hijinks ensue. The reason this is such a difficult movie to watch is that Ripley's pathology makes it impossible to empathize with him at any point. He does not redeem himself; he shows practically no real remorse for anything he does; and it is clear by the end of the movie that he will never stop of his own accord. He proves himself incapable of the love he so desperately wants, because he has no conscience, no soul, no honor or virtue or character. He thinks it better to be a "pretend somebody than a real nobody" - but in his case this amounts to far more than just the putting on of airs. In his case his pretensions have subsumed his humanity - have made him inhuman. The final, tragic scene really nails this home. It's a great movie, perfectly effective, and I never want to see it again.
Rating:
Summary: captivating plot, gorgeous setting
Review: This movie stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, an impoverished psychotic, who, upon borrowing a Princeton jacket to play piano at a function, is mistaken by an older man to be the college friend of his son, Dickie, who is off gallivanting in Italy with no thought to his future. Ripley is sent to Italy to talk him out of it. So Ripley, through lies, encounters the world of beautiful society people, which he has never been a part of before. So when Dickie decides to say "sayonara" to Tom, he takes drastic matters into his own hands, plunging him into a tangled web of lies, murders and cover-ups. Filmed mostly in Italy, this movie is stunning both visually and figuratively. Damon does a great job of portraying a man for whom you feel both sympathy and fear. He is riveting! Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Cate Blanchett all round out the cast. It is great to see so many Oscar-nominees and winners in one film. Rent it today!
|
