Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of talent!
Review: Utterly ridiculous movie with one of the most contrived stories I've seen in a long time. There are far too many things that don't make sense and exist only to provide later plot points. And to top it off the movie stops at the most contrived points as if to stand up and shout "Look how clever I am!". Complete waste of a very talented cast.
Rating: 
Summary: A PLACE IN THE SUN
Review: In the early sixties, French star Alain Delon had already impersonated Tom Ripley in the first version of Patricia Highsmith's novel. Directed by René Clément, PLEIN SOLEIL (High sun) was interesting but René Clément was obliged to hide the ambiguous side of Tom Ripley and focused his attention on the machiavelic plan that Ripley imagined in order to commit the perfect murder.Forty years later, director Anthony Minghella can at last translate into images the subtlety of Tom Ripley's character. In my opinion, Matt Damon is OUTSTANDING as Ripley ; he could kill a dozen persons and we would still find good reasons to forgive him. He is only a victim of unfair circumstances. The cinematography is also to be praised, Anthony Minghella declining one by one the whole litany of the visual symbols for the theme of the double. Great musical score and actors giving excellent performances. Since the DVD also offers interviews, a commentary and the usual trailer, you can without hesitation consider THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY as A DVD for your library.
Rating:
Summary: too long, to long and to boring
Review: This movie did not live up to any of its hype. The Talented Mr. Ripley has to be one of the worst movies I've seen. It could have been cut by 1 hour and still have been boring. When you find the interesting parts of a movie is the scenery its time to burn the film which is just what I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Top-notch
Review: This movie made me laugh, and it was a good suspense movie. The scene where Tom is singing and dancing and Dickie catches him--who didn't laugh out loud at THAT? Also, I laughed at how Dickie carelessly referred to Tom when they first met. Dickie: Who? Marge: Tom Ripley. Besides that, this is a good serious movie too. It deserved acclaim for the excellent cast (Jude Law was amazing) and fine story.
Rating: 
Summary: the not so talented mr. ripley
Review: Good looking film reminescent of the fifties and sixties films when budgets allowed for exotic location shooting. It takes much too long to get to the spice ultimately what could have been a very good film comes away as just okay. the scene in the jazz bar is a direct ripoff of the scene with the really wonderful "It started in Naples" with the wonderful sophia loren and clark gable funny i havent heard anyone mention that. Paltrow gets a little too sickening trying to locate her beau jude law who gets off teasing damon.
Rating:
Summary: A Dash of Hitchcock, Some Chet Baker and Gwenneth...
Review: ...I was, of course, prepared not to like this moovy mainly because when it had it's theatrical release last year, they oversaturated the television airwaves with it's trailer commercials. I finally, relunctantly, saw it and I must say it has some compelling drama and suspense--it turns out to be a distant cuzzin' to Hitchcock's "Rope" and "Psycho" but with the requisite near-2K touches all the 1999 films had. When Mr. Damon/Mr. Ripley croons that Baker version of "My Funny Valentine" you kinda got the drift that Jude Law shoulda paid more attention to this guy's mental state, but that wouldn't have been the best film making, would it? (or in other words, thank Gawd the powers that be didn't do it that way. And thank Gawd I am not in the film industry, huh?)....fine acting jobs from all concerned, including the glamourous Gwenneth Paltrow. Despite what you hear from the likes of Camille Paglia, she is quite a good actress. This is one moovy you can look at over and over and take apart (looking for macguffins?) like many Hitchcock moovees.
Rating:
Summary: Tom Ripley's "Damons"
Review: A strange and realistic movie. Stays with you for a long time. A sort of modern-day Dorian Gray, with Tom Ripley sinking deeper and deeper into the morass with each murder, but nothing staining his Dickie Greenleaf persona. The fight on the boat that leads to Dickie's murder was superbly shot. The Italian locations were just great. Thought that the movie was quite forward in terms of depicting Tom's sexual preferences.
Rating:
Summary: BIZARRE, YET ENGROSSING!
Review: This dark, shadowy brooding drama is about a young man with a flair for mimicry. We first meet Mr. Ripley (Matt Damon) as a poor pianist struggling to make ends meet doubling as a waiter. Fate tosses a curve ball his way, and he is off to Europe in the employ of a wealthy shipping magnate to retrieve his employer's son, and bring him back home to America. So begins a twisting tragic pattern of events, as he sinks lower and lower into a the depths of sheer evil. Not even love can save him. I kept hoping he would redeem himself. He is clever, thinks fast, covers his tracks but is ensnared so deeply, we can only watch his tranformation in compassionate horror. Gwyneth Paltrow is lovely as the only person who finally sees through his facade. The film is a study in intrigue. It is bizarre, yet engrossing. Very entertaining. Excellent cast.
Rating:
Summary: HELP! Somebody PLEASE get me some Tylenol!
Review: Okay, I just finished watching this movie, less than twenty minutes ago... It gave me a serious headache, and the only suspense was when it would end!!! I selected this movie with such high expectations... The cast, starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow have all had very high marks on their acting careers. This will most definitely be one of those movies that they will look back on years from now as 'one of the other movies they starred in' as they would be nuts to claim this as one they are proud of! I guess I should have been tipped off by the director, Anthony Minghella, who also directed 'The English Patient', which I considered a very painful movie to watch. That stated, I would have preferred to watch a 'movie marathon' of the 'English Patient' for 24 hours than to watch this movie once! The movie starts with such great promise... The costuming and the scenery are magnificent. However, even the very start with the 'jacket incident' began to grate on me. As someone who works in a job where dishonesty could cost someone their life, Ripley's deception is not something that I find humor in. Then, at the pier in Italy, and so on down the line, his willingness to lie (and for no apparent reason) got onto my nerves. Dickie Greenleaf, played by Jude Law, does an accurate job of portraying the 'typical' wealthy, young, irresponsible expatriate. As a former expat myself, (though not in the 'wealthy' or 'irresponsible' categories!) who lived in Europe, I have met many people like those portrayed in the movie, and can identify with them and they way they behave. Dickie's summation of Ripley while in the motorboat is entirely accurate- 'a leech'. Here is a young man, who seemed to have such promise early on in the movie, but with the more you watch, the more you learn that he is a very troubled individual, a psychotic, repressed, burden on all those with whom he comes in contact. This movie very much reminded me of Dostoyevsky's book 'Crime and Punishment', which drags you through the mud of a criminal's consciousness and his guilt ridden mind. While has it's merits as literature, and does have a redeeming ending, (much unlike this movie) it is not the kind of book which most people would simply sit down and read for 'pleasure'. Now you could have made a great movie about an actually 'talented' and honest Tom Ripley (by the way, I couldn't find any talent which Mr. Ripley had a monopoly on in the movie, other than being a psychopath...) who goes to Italy to bring back a wealthy New Yorker's wayward son. That would probably make a great movie, and the scenery would be just as good! Thinking of the scenery, if you want to watch this movie to see the 'quaint' Italian countryside, please do yourself a favor and buy a ticket there! I live in Japan and the cost of a flight to Italy would buy a couple hundred copies of this movie, but would be worth it, in order to avoid the pain of watching it! Personally, I stopped the movie at about two-thirds of the way through. I could not stand to watch another minute of it. However, at the request of my wife, I did watch the last portion of the movie, which really has even fewer redeeming qualities than the beginning! If you enjoy dark, very psychological movies which pause and make you think about the depravity of a man's condition, or perhaps enjoy sticking bamboo shoots under your fingernails, this is a movie for you. However, if you are looking for something to watch that may be enlightening, or at least somewhat interesting, take my word for it and go watch another movie.
Rating:
Summary: Aaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!
Review: I forced myself to sit through this thing knowing that Tom Ripley would get caught and get his comeuppance in the end. Got caught. Didn't like comeuppance. What a waste of time!
| 
