The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)

2 out of 4

Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffmann, James Rebhorn, Jack Davenport

Director: Anthony Minghella

Time: 139 mins

The Talented Mr Ripley seems to have everything going for it - an impressive and handsome cast, an Oscar-winning director, gorgeous Italian locations, and an excellent literary pedigree by virtue of the novel by Patricia Highsmith. This suspense drama begins promisingly, allowing us to spend an hour in the lap of luxury, basking in the sun, languidly watching life go by in the sumptuous Italian locations in which our protagonists find themselves. When things start to get nasty, the film turns into a The Fugitive-type hunt that is at least twenty minutes too long and ultimately goes nowhere. The film could have ended without the drawn out finale on a cruise ship, which turns an already long film into one that seems to drag and undoes the enjoyable first half.

The title character, Tom Ripley (Damon) is a poor pianist who, by his own admission, is an expert forger, liar, and impersonator. A chance meeting with shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf (The Game's Rebhorn) gives him the opportunity to travel to Europe and live a life that only wealth can endow. Greenleaf wants Ripley to persuade his wayward son Dickie (Law, from Gattaca) to come home to New York. Ripley readily agrees.

Once he reaches Italy, he bumps into Meredith Logue (Blanchett), the daughter of a rich textiles family. He introduces himself to her as Dickie Greenleaf. Meredith is attracted to him, but they part soon after. Ripley finally locates Dickie and his fiancee Marge (Paltrow) in a southern Italian coastal village and ingratiates himself into their lives. Their days are spent sailing, swimming, going to nightclubs, and other hedonistic pursuits. When Dickie tires of Ripley's company, Ripley turns into a murderer and transforms himself into Dickie. The next hour shows his attempts at evading police, as well as keeping at bay Marge, Meredith, two of Dickie's equally hedonistic friends (Hoffman and Davenport), and Papa Greenleaf himself.

Aside from the overlength, the film suffers from a lack of suspense. There are a couple of situations when Ripley is close to being uncovered during the manhunt, but there is very little else to make the heart pound. If it weren't for the delicious first half, the film would have almost been a total failure.

Talking about the first half, this is the part of the film when Jude Law is prominent. His Dickie is a lover of life, and equally fond of male and female company. Honest, yet amoral; friendly, yet a user of friends, Law's portrayal is very good, and quite deserving of his Oscar nomination. Damon is the centre of the film, and while he's not bad, the film lacks a certain spark when Law isn't around. His Tom Ripley is appropriately mysterious and inscrutable, but there is little character development other than him turning murderous. Paltrow is quite good as Dickie's long-suffering fiancee, and succeeds better than Blanchett, who was incidentally her rival for Oscar honours last year. Hoffman turns in another vivid supporting performance as Dickie's friend Freddie, who sniffs around a bit too much. It's a pity he's only on-screen for about ten minutes.

Director Minghella obviously loves scenic locations, and he frames his photogenic cast with beautiful shots of islands, bays and inlets, as well as picture postcard tourist spots from a host of Italian cities. There's a pleasurable, very inviting feel to the sun-drenched beach lifestyle that is displayed in the first half of the film. Once the blood starts flowing, however, the film becomes an endless manhunt that goes on and on and on and produces an unsatisfying payoff. It's disappointing that with the talent in front of and behind the camera, The Talented Mr Ripley turns out to be just a pretty average film.

(c) Joe Wong