The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
Country: US
Technical: col 139m
Director: Anthony Minghella
Cast: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Synopsis:
A cloakroom attendant is mistaken for an alumnus of a top school by a shipping magnate, who sends him to Italy to bring the man's son and his (supposed) former friend back home. His attempt to be someone of importance gradually leads him from lies to murder and beyond.
Review:
Glamorous, impeccably produced adaptation of the same Patricia Highsmith novel on which Plein Soleil (qv.) was based. It introduces currents of homosexuality into the brew, no doubt to provide the unwilling villain (sympathetic Damon cleverly cast against type) with one more thing to dissemble. However, as a motive for bringing this curiously dated scenario back to the screen it seems insufficient (daring enough, though, for conservative mainstream Hollywood) and the irony remains that Ripley must kill even the person he loves to keep his guilt a secret. Short of the dramatic climaxes to justify its length, but intelligent film-making all the same.
Country: US
Technical: col 139m
Director: Anthony Minghella
Cast: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Synopsis:
A cloakroom attendant is mistaken for an alumnus of a top school by a shipping magnate, who sends him to Italy to bring the man's son and his (supposed) former friend back home. His attempt to be someone of importance gradually leads him from lies to murder and beyond.
Review:
Glamorous, impeccably produced adaptation of the same Patricia Highsmith novel on which Plein Soleil (qv.) was based. It introduces currents of homosexuality into the brew, no doubt to provide the unwilling villain (sympathetic Damon cleverly cast against type) with one more thing to dissemble. However, as a motive for bringing this curiously dated scenario back to the screen it seems insufficient (daring enough, though, for conservative mainstream Hollywood) and the irony remains that Ripley must kill even the person he loves to keep his guilt a secret. Short of the dramatic climaxes to justify its length, but intelligent film-making all the same.
Country: US
Technical: col 139m
Director: Anthony Minghella
Cast: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Synopsis:
A cloakroom attendant is mistaken for an alumnus of a top school by a shipping magnate, who sends him to Italy to bring the man's son and his (supposed) former friend back home. His attempt to be someone of importance gradually leads him from lies to murder and beyond.
Review:
Glamorous, impeccably produced adaptation of the same Patricia Highsmith novel on which Plein Soleil (qv.) was based. It introduces currents of homosexuality into the brew, no doubt to provide the unwilling villain (sympathetic Damon cleverly cast against type) with one more thing to dissemble. However, as a motive for bringing this curiously dated scenario back to the screen it seems insufficient (daring enough, though, for conservative mainstream Hollywood) and the irony remains that Ripley must kill even the person he loves to keep his guilt a secret. Short of the dramatic climaxes to justify its length, but intelligent film-making all the same.