The effect doesn't linger too long after the end of the movie, but the classy psychological thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley is a twisted, taut and terrifying experience while it lasts.
The story moves relentlessly -- if slowly and for a protracted time. We are kept perched nervously in taut expectation, which is the state of suspense all thrillers yearn for. The film opens tomorrow.
The creepy chill that really makes The Talented Mr. Ripley stand out is that it is character- and not plot-driven and its villain is an 'everyman' type, not talented at much.
He is average in looks and brainpower and charm and sex appeal and pretty much everything else young people hold in esteem when their hormones are raging. Especially young rich people. Mr. Ripley is a pretender, a wannabe, a poor kid looking for an entree into a rarified la dolce vita world.
His entree is crime. So Mr. Ripley's blood-curdling story -- the guy is a sociopath -- is one of those situations where saner men can shake their heads and go: "There but for the grace of God, and the work of the Devil, go I!"
Director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), who also adapted Patricia Highsmith's novel to the screen, indulged in ingenious casting to pull this off. His Ripley is Matt Damon, a Hollywood pretty boy with a dirty down-side that cuts through the boyish thing and turns him dangerous. There is a touch of desperation in his eyes too.
From the opening frame in The Talented Mr. Ripley, you don't trust him. The question is not whether he will go bad, but why and precisely how. The portrayal of Ripley as a sociopath is less obvious in the movie than in the book. At the same time, the homoerotic tones are pushed further on screen.
The story, set primarily in Rome and sun-drenched seaside towns in Italy in the late 1950s -- so this movie looks good -- chronicles how Ripley is hired by a rich kid's father to hunt his son down to persuade him to return to New York.
It's not going to be easy. The son (mercurial Jude Law captures the character's unfocussed nature to perfection) would rather chase skirts, play jazz and spend his father's money.
Complicating Ripley's assignment are the other wild cards involved with the target son -- as well as his own lies.
One card is the son's sultry girlfriend (Gwyneth Paltrow, the movie's weakest link, is a piece of expensive furniture in a movie that is already dressed up prettily enough).
The other is the raging lunatic of a best friend (Philip Seymour Hoffman in yet another cutting edge, guts-out, no-holds-barred performance that re-inforces him as a rising character actor with De Niro potential).
Another catalyst is the character played by Cate Blanchett (of Elizabeth fame). As just another little rich girl wasting her parents' money, she is hardly seen, but has a huge impact.
No one should mistake The Talented Mr. Ripley for a killer version of The English Patient, one of the great romantic movies of the decade and a movie that does linger. But it still can creep you out big time, as a thriller should. Go if you dare.
(This film is rated AA)
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