Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Jude Law
Director: Anthony Minghella
Rated: M
The Talented Mr Ripley is about the most deadly of lies, deceits and secrets. Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) so badly wants to shed his impoverished background he will do anything to join the upper classes of New York. He is very talented indeed, a musician, an excellent mimic and a confidence trickster. He is engaged to play the piano at a social occasion when he bumps into Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn), a New York tycoon, who notices the Princeton University jacket he is wearing. Tom borrowed the jacket for the afternoon concert. “It all started with the coat, I should never have borrowed it.” How wrong Tom is on this score. It isn’t the coat that brings Tom’s life unstuck; it is the succession of lies he tells for the year after the concert which bring him to destructive ends. Tom is sent by Mr Greenleaf to Italy to fetch his son, Dickie (Jude Law). Tom claims to have known Dickie at Princeton. On this premise, he goes to Italy and befriends Dickie, his fiancee Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) and begins to move in the social circles he has always desired. Tom tells one lie after another to everyone about anything. He also lies to himself and when he confuses Dickie’s affection for a sexual advance the whole world starts to come crashing down. And what is Tom’s response to this? He does what he does best. He lies his way out of his problems. Mr Ripley is tragically talented and his gifts are death dealing. Anthony Minghella directed The English Patient. His films are stylish, mannered and slow. The editing of this film is first class. There are violent moments in this film but they are not actually shown. Rather, they are portrayed through clever cutting and a complex and assured soundtrack. The director of photography is Australia’s John Seal, who has worked on several of Peter Weir’s films. The pictures of Italy in this film are stunning. Deceit has a way of overtaking us. The Talented Mr Ripley is a fine Lenten film. (Fr Richard Leonard SJ is the director of the Australian Catholic Film Office.)
