The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Starring - Matt Damon; Gwyneth Paltrow; Jude Law; Cate Blanchett & Philip Seymour Hoffman Director - Anthony Minghella MPAA - Rated R for violence, language and brief nudity. In some strange way, The talented Mr. Ripley is what you would consider to be a chick flick. I'm not sure why, but that's how it ends up. The two guys who I saw the movie with both disliked it as much, if not more, than I did. But yet my buddy's wife and her female friend really liked it. I'm not sure what it was about this movie that we males disliked the most. I would have to say that a movie starring Matt Damon and Jude Law would never normally top my must-see list. Add Gwyneth Paltrow to the mix and you have the makings for a movie that is just too sickly sweet for words. Maybe it was all the gay references that we didn't appreciate. I really don't want to pay to see one guy put the moves on another guy. (Two women together are just fine; but not two guys.) But I think the real killer for me was the male frontal nudity. Do we really need to see Jude Law in a bathtub? Let me answer that with a resounding NO. What is it with the dick shots in movies lately? The night before watching The Talented Mr. Ripley, I had to endure Oliver Stone's 3-hour tribute to male genitals, Any Given Sunday. I know all the females out there will say that it's about time we get male nudity, since females have been going topless in movies for years. But ladies, there is a hell of a difference between breasts and penises. I propose a new rule for male nudity in movies. If we have to endure male genitals swinging in the breeze, I say that it should be mandatory for female genitals to get an equal amount of screen time -- just a thought. Anyway, back to this movie. Another problem that I had with this movie was the story. Matt Damon plays Tom Ripley, a young man, who by a twist of fate, (or is it?) runs into a shipping magnate (James Rebhorn) who mistakenly thinks that Ripley is a former classmate of his son's. Ripley does nothing to correct this error. Instead he accepts an offer from the man to travel to Italy to try to persuade the man's son, Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), to return home to the United States. This is where things get interesting. Tom Ripley immediately begins to show signs of some serious sociopathic behavior. He arrives in Italy and immediately ingratiates himself into the lives of his "friend" Dickie, and Dickie's girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow). It is difficult to go into a great deal of detail without giving too much of the movie away, but suffice to say that Tom wants Dickie's life, and is willing to do whatever he has to in order to get it. The pure sociopathic genius with which Tom Ripley goes about his chores is amazing. My hat goes off for writing of Ripley's manipulation of everyone else in the movie. At times I almost feel sorry for his character's occasional problems, until I began to wonder if everything that is going on is not just some part of his master plan. My problem with the plot is that I was never sure why Ripley was doing what he was doing. (I know he was nuts, but I wanted more than that.) I could never see his goal. Maybe that was supposed to be the point, but I felt that it hurt the story more than helping it. I can't find fault with the Ripley character, and if everything surrounding him was a little more rounded, this might have been a better movie. I just didn't care about anybody else in the movie. So the manipulation that they endured at Ripley's hands never elicited much of a reaction. I made a crack about Damon, Law and Paltrow at the top of the review. It's not that I dislike any of them, they are just the sort of actors that fall into my "take them or leave them" pile. Damon is actually quite good as Ripley, but not good enough to overcome the multitude of weak spots in the plot. Jude Law continues to land in my "who cares" pile. He was good, but I was so ambivalent towards his character that I really can't give him high marks. Then we have Gwyneth. It seems her only job was to play the girl who you can't help but fall madly in love with. She fills the role nicely and, as usual, exudes charm. The one actor who I do have very good things to say about is Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays Dickie's playboy friend. He is about the only one who is suspicious of Ripley and you can cut the tension with a knife when he and Damon appear on the screen together. Unfortunately, his role, while integral, is fairly small. This is a movie that I have no doubt I would have really enjoyed under different circumstances. Other than the above-mentioned problems, I can't really put my finger on the major flaw that really hurt the film. But it was there nonetheless. The Talented Mr. Ripley is the sort of film that I hope gets remade someday. All of the major components are there for a spectacular movie. With some expert tweaking, it could have been one hell of a film. 6/10 Reviewed December 29, 1999 by Joe Chamberlain