The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

	Directed by: Anthony Minghella	COUNTRY USA GENRE Drama/Thriller NORWEGIAN TITLE Den talentfulle Mr. Ripley RUNNING TIME 139 minutes
	Produced by: William Horberg Tom Sternberg
	Written by (based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith): Anthony Minghella

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Tom Ripley	Matt Damon	½
Marge	Gwyneth Paltrow
Dickie Greenleaf	Jude Law	½
Freddy Miles	Philip Seymour Hoffman	½
Meredith Logue	Cate Blanchett	½
Peter Smith-Kingsley	Jack Davenport
Herbert Greenleaf	James Rebhorn
Alvin	Philip Baker Hall

Review

Anthony Minghella's rendition of Patricia Highsmith's peculiar character Tom Ripley lays the basis for this aesthetic and well-thought-out Hitchcockian thriller. At the centre of it all is Matt Damon's serpentine, enigmatic title character, who turns out to be a fascinating psychological study as well as a commentary on social and cultural conventions and positions along the lines of The Great Gatsby.

The Talented Mr. Ripley is at its best during the first half, thanks to a profound and beautiful portrait of a male friendship that develops via homoerotic undertones towards a tragic conclusion. Jude Law's exceptionally charismatic Dickie Greenleaf is just as magnetic for the viewer as he is for Ripley, and Minghella manipulates our empathy playfully and expertly in this part of the film. The acting and character development are top-notch, not only by the two leads, but also by an engaging Gwyneth Paltrow and a fantastic Philip Seymour Hoffman (who easily steals every scene he's in). John Seale's cinematography is another important part of the effect. It feels like a postcard from Italy circa the 1950s.

In its latter half, The Talented Mr. Ripley becomes darker, turning into a devious game about identity, trust, and ever-changing character relations, which, despite an undeniable thematic relevance and Minghella's first-rate craftsmanship, ends up a little absurd. There are some intense sequences, but the denouement isn't as compelling as the road leading up to it, partly because Law's vivacity is so crucial that his exit makes the film somewhat anemic. When we're left with Ripley's narcissistic, sociopathic persona, we're also left with a colder and more detached story, which ultimately feels less palpable. Nevertheless, for large chunks of its running time, The Talented Mr. Ripley is among the finest examples of aesthetically fulfilled filmmaking from the last golden age of American cinema. It's a movie of undeniable magnetism.