This is a strange sort of movie. It starts off in an
interesting fashion, then reaches a point in the middle where you realise it's
going to be immensely long and boring, then just cuts off after what seems like
ten hours, leaving you partly glad that it's finally over and partly annoyed
that nothing has been resolved.
The main blame has to lie with the director, Anthony Minghella. If this movie
had been half the length, had a director with an iota of talent, and had
expanded Cate Blanchett's role, it might have been something. As it is, the
only positive aspect of it for me was that it was free.
The plot is simplistic to say the least, and the characters are mostly
uninvolving, shallow and pointless. The unlucky ones have to suffer through
painfully drawn out and uninteresting scenes, while the luckier ones are
bludgeoned to death by Mr Ripley. At no point did I care what happens to any of
them, and their motives, especially those of the eponymous anti-hero, remain an
enigma.
In many ways it's actually a remarkable demonstration of how to make an awful
movie. The plot is utterly silly and contrived (rich, stupid American hires
someone he's just met (Ripley) to travel to Italy at great expense and
encourage his playboy son to come home, instead of which Ripley kills him,
tells lies, then kills more people, all the while displaying a complete lack of
talent but possessing an abundance of malice and luck.) It would make no
difference if most of the characters weren't in it, and the audience is left to
make what they can of a movie that is not resolved in any way. The script is
mediocre and apart from a few acts of savage bloodletting there's no violence
or sex, so there's nothing to maintain interest. The homosexual aspect of the
movie is a bit pointless and makes for uncomfortable viewing as again nothing
is resolved. Combine this with Anthony Minghella's standard trick of making his
movies incredibly long, and he surely has a strong contender for the title of
Crappest Film Ever. But he makes the fatal error of using some fine actors, so
that this movie does not quite plumb the same depths of awfulness as, say
The Avengers or The Sixth Sense. The acting is
really about the only worthwhile feature of this movie. Of course Matt Damon is
as wooden as always, but Gwyneth Paltrow and Philip Seymour Hoffman do a good
job, and Cate Blanchett would have been brilliant had she been in it for more
than thirty seconds. The Talented Mr Ripley was mostly shot in Italy, and the
cinematography is largely quite beautiful, although not very skilfully or
imaginatively executed.
To cut a long story short, if I'd known that being a pathetic loser would turn
out to be Mr Ripley's only talent I wouldn't have seen it.
(no stars)
The Players:
Matt Damon as Tom Ripley
Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf
Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge Sherwood
Cate Blanchett as Meredith Logue
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddie Miles
written by Ed in February 2000