The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)

Plot of the Talented Mr Ripley: Tom Ripley pretends at a party to be an ex Princeton student and as a result gets the job of going to Italy  to try to get Dickie Greenleaf, son of a industrialist, to return to America. On the trip over he pretends to be Dickie after meeting the rich Meredith Logue. In Italy Tom ingratiates himself with Dickie and his girlfriend. But over time Dickie tires of the friendship, which results in Tom killing him while they are out in a small boat. Thereafter Ripley impersonates Dickie, mostly managing to maintain the fiction, although with numerous close shaves, particularly when the father arrives with a detective. The police are also interviewing Tom, but when Dickie’s father bequeaths some of Dickie’s trust fund to him he thinks he is home and dry, only to be faced with an old friend of Dickie’s, Freddie Miles. How will it all work out?

Content: No sex or nudity, unless you count some feet visible in a compromising position. Dickie is a drunk, so much drinking of cocktails and Champaign. Italy plays itself as a charming place, the film is set in 1958 before the days of ultra tourism. Tom Ripley is seen learning about jazz so that he can have things in common with Dickie. They go to nightclubs and enjoy the ambiance. Tom finds out that Dickie has impregnated a young Italian woman who commits suicide, so has a hold over him.

A View: This film was well thought of and was nominated in a number of categories for the Oscars. Also made money. Roger Ebert gave it four stars out of four, saying “he’s a monster but we want him to get away with it”. It seemed to me that Ripley gets away with murder a little too easily. Even in 1958 I feel sure that the Italian police would have done better, but that aside it is an unusual film, not a who done it, or a why done it, but a will he get away with it. Could have been a bit shorter but certainly worth a watch for nothing.

Fun Fact: Said to be Matt Damon’s favourite film.