Before even thinking of watching "The Talented Mr. Ripley", I read the novel by Patricia Highsmith that the film was based on. I loved the book. I actually wrote a review of it here at Epinions. I gave it five stars. The novel is a psychology study. We are inside of the insane Tom Ripley's head. The novel is a success because while Ripley murdered two people, it is all written in a very sympathetic tone, and the readers inevitably end up feeling sorry for him. It is a thriller that does not rely on lots of blood and guts in order to get into the heads of the readers: we develop a very intimate relationship with Tom Ripley throughout the course of the book.
Having said that, I had high expectations for the film adaptation. I knew that I was either going to love the movie, or I was going to hate it. Keep these expectations in mind while reading my review. Although I can't say for sure if I would feel the same about this movie if I hadn't have read and loved the novel so much, I feel fairly confident that this is the case.
I ended up hating the film.
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" is the story of a young man, Tom Ripley, who is hired to go to Italy by Mr. Greenleaf. The purpose of this journey is so that Tom will persuade Greenleaf's son, Dickie, to come back to America. Tom fails miserably at his initial task, but decides to remain in Italy. After feels rejected by Dickie, and ends up killing him. He takes on Dickie Greenleaf's identity. In order to cover up his tracks, Tom kills Freddie, a friend of Dickie's. Finally, when the police are just about to catch up with "Dickie", he converts back to Tom again, and gets away with the murders.
First of all, I think that any attempt to make a film out of Highsmith's novel would be an exercise in futility. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is all about Tom Ripley's mind, and what is going on in it. As readers, we all know what is going on in his mind when he kills Dickie and takes on his identity. In the movie, this is much less clear. It is much harder to understand Tom Ripley's mind when we don't really know what is going on in it. This is a major downfall of the film.
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" adds and changes many things to the Highsmith's original story line. For example, in the novel Dickie was an artist, not a sax player. Tom's lover, Peter, was in the book but they were not romantically involved. Tom committed two murders, not three. Marge hated Tom, and thought he was a homosexual, and Tom hated her back. While these may all seem like tiny details that may not matter, they all add up to make a much less powerful story.
An additional aspect that I didn't like about this film was the way that they did not try to explain Tom's character, or why he did the things that he did. In the novel, of course, all of this is explained. But the film fails to answer such questions as "why did Tom become Dickie anyway? How did he feel after killing Freddie?" There are many questions like this that just are not answered and make for a weak film.
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" was boring. I had trouble finishing the movie, even though I was watching for similarities or differences between it and the book. It was much too slow-paced... this is due to the poor translation between written word and film. I think that it would have been impossible to make this film exciting, since the book is rather slow-paced. However, the novel keeps its reader's attentive due to the detailed observation of Tom Ripley's mind and motivations. All of the good of this story was all but lost in the film.
The actors played their parts decently, but more is needed than decent actors to have a film that works. I thought that Gwenyth Paltrow was an excellent choice for Dickie's fiance (in the novel, Marge was only Dickie's friend... grrrr...). She played the part believably and she even looked appropriate as the character she was playing.
I would not recommend this film to anyone. It isn't interesting and ends terribly. For those of you who like Matt Damon, getting to see him topless still isn't a good enough reason to watch this film. Read the book first. It's an excellent story, and is a much better presentation of the story than the film is. If you want, you can later watch the film, and see for yourself how poorly it really is. For those of you who have already watched the film, I would suggest reading the novel, so that you can understand the problems that I had with the film entirely.
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