The Talented Mr. Ripley (film)

In 1958, Tom Ripley is approached by shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf, who believes that Ripley attended Princeton with his son, Dickie, because Ripley wears a borrowed Princeton jacket. Greenleaf pays Ripley to travel to Italy, where Dickie has settled, to persuade him to return to the United States. After a first-class ocean liner voyage, Ripley pretends to be Dickie in the Italian ship terminal and befriends an American socialite, Meredith Logue.

In the seaside village of Mongibello, Ripley befriends Dickie and his girlfriend Marge Sherwood, claiming to be Dickie's former Princeton classmate. Ripley enjoys Dickie's extravagant lifestyle and becomes obsessed with him. Eventually, Dickie tires of him and starts spending time with his socialite friend Freddie Miles, who treats Ripley with contempt. When he returns from Rome, Dickie catches Ripley dressed in his clothes and dancing in front of a mirror, which disturbs him.

When Dickie impregnates a local woman and spurns her, she drowns herself. Ripley, aware of what has happened, promises a guilt-ridden Dickie to keep it a secret. After Dickie's father cuts off Ripley's travel funds, Dickie cancels a trip to Venice and tells Ripley that they should part ways, but offers to take him on a final trip to San Remo. They argue aboard a small boat; Dickie says that he has grown tired of Ripley and is going to marry Marge, while Ripley insists that Dickie is afraid of the feelings they have for each other. The argument becomes physical, and Ripley kills Dickie with an oar. He takes Dickie's belongings and scuttles the boat.

Realizing that people mistake him for Dickie, Ripley assumes his identity. He forges a letter to Marge, convincing her that Dickie has left her and moved to Rome. He creates the illusion that Dickie is still alive by checking into one hotel as Dickie and another as himself, fabricating an exchange of communications between the two. Through forgery, he is able to draw on Dickie's allowance, which allows him to live lavishly. He runs into Meredith, who still knows him as Dickie, in Rome, and accepts an invitation from her to attend an opera with her family. Ripley's ruse is threatened when he unexpectedly runs into Marge and her friend Peter Smith-Kingsley at the opera. Ripley rushes Meredith out of the opera house on a pretext, then rejects her to prevent himself from being exposed.

Freddie shows up at Ripley's apartment looking for Dickie. When the landlady addresses Ripley as Dickie, Freddie realizes the fraud. Ripley bludgeons Freddie to death and disposes of his body. After the body is found, police visit the apartment to question "Dickie". To evade the police and Marge, both of whom are looking for Dickie, Ripley forges a suicide note with "Dickie" claiming responsibility for Freddie's death. Under his real name, Ripley travels to Venice, where he again encounters Peter.

Dickie's father arrives in Italy with a private detective, Alvin MacCarron, and meets with the police. Ripley tries to kill Marge after she discovers that he has Dickie's rings, but they are interrupted by Peter. Mr. Greenleaf dismisses Marge's suspicions and MacCarron tells Ripley that the police are convinced that Dickie, who had a history of violence, murdered Freddie before killing himself. MacCarron tells Ripley that Greenleaf intends to bequeath a portion of Dickie's trust fund to him to reward his loyalty to Dickie and to ensure his silence.

Free and clear of his crimes, Ripley boards a ship to Greece with Peter; it is implied they are now lovers. Ripley is surprised to encounter Meredith, who still believes he is Dickie and also knows Peter socially. Ripley kisses her and promises to talk later. In his cabin, Peter tells Ripley he saw him kiss Meredith, and demands answers. Ripley realizes that he will have to kill Peter, as it is only a matter of time before Peter and Meredith run into each other and Meredith, who is traveling with family, would be missed. After apologizing to Peter for lying to him, a sobbing Ripley smothers him to death and returns to his cabin, alone.

Discover more about Cast related topics

Matt Damon

Matt Damon

Matthew Paige Damon is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among Forbes' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North American box office, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He has received various awards and nominations, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for three British Academy Film Awards and seven Primetime Emmy Awards.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Jude Law

Jude Law

David Jude Heyworth Law is an English actor. He received a British Academy Film Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. In 2007, he received an Honorary César and was named a knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.

Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett

Catherine Elise Blanchett is an Australian actor. Acknowledged as one of the greatest actors of her generation, she is known for her versatile work across independent films, blockbusters, and stage, and has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for a Tony Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—lowlifes, eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical productions, including leading roles, from the early 1990s until his death in 2014. He received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards. In 2022, Empire magazine listed Hoffman as one of 50 Greatest Actors Of All Time.

Jack Davenport

Jack Davenport

Jack Arthur Davenport is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the television series This Life and Coupling, and as James Norrington in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. He has also appeared in other Hollywood films, such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Kingsman: The Secret Service.

James Rebhorn

James Rebhorn

James Robert Rebhorn was an American character actor who appeared in over 100 films, television series, and plays. At the time of his death, he had recurring roles in the series White Collar and Homeland. He also appeared in films such as Scent of a Woman, The Game, Carlito's Way, Independence Day, My Cousin Vinny, and Meet the Parents.

Lisa Eichhorn

Lisa Eichhorn

Lisa Eichhorn is an American actress, writer and producer. She made her film debut in 1979 in the John Schlesinger film Yanks, for which she received two Golden Globe nominations. Her international career has included film, theatre and television.

Philip Baker Hall

Philip Baker Hall

Philip Baker Hall was an American character actor.

Celia Weston

Celia Weston

Celia Weston is an American character actress. Weston received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her performance in Dead Man Walking (1995), and also had supporting roles in more than 40 movies, including The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), In the Bedroom (2001), Hulk (2003), and The Village (2004). On television, she is best known for her role as Jolene Hunnicutt in the CBS sitcom Alice (1981–85).

Rosario Fiorello

Rosario Fiorello

Rosario Tindaro Fiorello, known just as Fiorello, is an Italian comedian, singer, radio, and television presenter.

Ivano Marescotti

Ivano Marescotti

Ivano Marescotti is an Italian actor.

Casting

The Guardian reported that Leonardo DiCaprio declined the role which went to Damon.^[3] Minghella cast Matt Damon after seeing his performance in Good Will Hunting, because he felt the actor had the right mix of "credibility and warmth and generosity" to engage the audience and help them understand how Ripley "thinks and operates".^[4] The character of Meredith Logue, not present in the novel, was added by Minghella with Cate Blanchett in mind. He was "entranced" with Blanchett after meeting with her and surprised that she was actually interested in playing the small part; Minghella went on to write more scenes for the character to expand her role.^[4]

Minghella happened to see the dailies from a film his wife Caroline Choa was producing at the time, which Law starred in: The Wisdom of Crocodiles. Minghella was impressed with Law's performance and offered him the role of Dickie; in his "insane arrogance", as Law put it, he initially refused, because he did not wish to play a "pretty boy". After learning of the cast Minghella was assembling and coming to understand that he would be "in safe hands" with the director, Law later accepted the part.^[5]

Filming

Apart from the beginning scenes filmed in New York City, the film was shot entirely on location in Italy. The cliffside resort town of Positano and various villages on the islands of Ischia and Procida, near Naples, were used to represent the fictional town of Mongibello.^[6] Frequent and unpredictable rain hampered the production, with Minghella stating that "we had to deliver this gorgeous Mediterranean world, this beautiful world of Southern Italy, and we could never get Italy to turn beautiful...We would divide the scenes up, often into words, and go out and get two or three words and then it would start to rain and we'd have to go back in again."^[4] The scenes taking place in San Remo were actually filmed in Anzio, a resort town near Rome. Well-known locations included the Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps and Piazza di Spagna in Rome, and the Caffè Florian in the Piazza San Marco in Venice.^[6]

To prepare for the role of Ripley, Damon lost 30 pounds and learned to play the piano.^[7] Law gained weight and learned to play the saxophone for his character; he also broke a rib when he fell backward while filming the murder scene in the boat.^[8]

Discover more about Production related topics

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. Known for his work as a leading man in biopics and period films, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. As of 2019, his films have grossed over $7.2 billion worldwide, and he has been placed eight times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors.

Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is a 1997 American psychological drama film directed by Gus Van Sant, and written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. It stars Robin Williams, Damon, Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård and Minnie Driver.

Dailies

Dailies

In filmmaking, dailies are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was developed, synced to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director, selected actors, and film crew members. After the advent of digital filmmaking, "dailies" were available instantly after the take and the review process was no longer tied to the overnight processing of film and became more asynchronous. Now, some reviewing may be done at the shoot, even on location, and raw footage may be immediately sent electronically to anyone in the world who needs to review the takes. For example, a director can review takes from a second unit while the crew is still on location or producers can get timely updates while travelling. Dailies serve as an indication of how the filming and the actors' performances are progressing. The term was also used to describe film dailies as "the first positive prints made by the laboratory from the negative photographed on the previous day".

Positano

Positano

Positano is a village and comune on the Amalfi Coast, in Campania, Italy, mainly in an enclave in the hills leading down to the coast.

Ischia

Ischia

Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about 30 km (19 mi) from Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures approximately 10 km (6 mi) east to west and 7 km (4 mi) north to south and has about 34 km (21 mi) of coastline and a surface area of 46.3 km2 (17.9 sq mi). It is almost entirely mountainous; the highest peak is Mount Epomeo, at 788 m (2,585 ft). The island is very densely populated, with 62,000 residents.

Procida

Procida

Procida is one of the Flegrean Islands off the coast of Naples in southern Italy. The island is between Cape Miseno and the island of Ischia. With its tiny satellite island of Vivara, it is a comune of the Metropolitan City of Naples, in the region of Campania.

Anzio

Anzio

Anzio is a town and comune on the coast of the Lazio region of Italy, about 51 kilometres (32 mi) south of Rome.

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in the 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans went there to watch the agones ("games"), and hence it was known as "Circus Agonalis". It is believed that over time the name changed to in avone to navone and eventually to navona.

Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy, climb a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top.

Piazza di Spagna

Piazza di Spagna

Piazza di Spagna, at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, is one of the most famous squares in Rome, Italy. It owes its name to the Palazzo di Spagna, the seat of the Embassy of Spain to the Holy See. There is also the famed Column of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Caffè Florian

Caffè Florian

Caffè Florian is a coffee house situated in the Procuratie Nuove of Piazza San Marco, Venice. It was established in 1720 and is the oldest coffee house in continuous operation in Italy, and one of the oldest in the world.

Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco

Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as la Piazza. Almost all the other urban spaces in the city are called campi ("fields"). The Piazzetta is an extension of the Piazza towards San Marco basin in its southeast corner. The two spaces together form the social, religious and political centre of Venice and are referred to together. This article relates to both of them.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 136 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "With Matt Damon's unsettling performance offering a darkly twisted counterpoint to Anthony Minghella's glossy direction, The Talented Mr. Ripley is a suspense thriller that lingers."^[9] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[10] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.^[11]

Roger Ebert gave the film four-out-of-four stars, calling it "an intelligent thriller" that is "insidious in the way it leads us to identify with Tom Ripley ... He's a monster, but we want him to get away with it".^[12] In her review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin praised Law's performance: "This is a star-making role for the preternaturally talented English actor Jude Law. Beyond being devastatingly good-looking, Mr. Law gives Dickie the manic, teasing powers of manipulation that make him ardently courted by every man or woman he knows".^[13]

Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A−" rating, and Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote: "Damon is at once an obvious choice for the part and a hard sell to audiences soothed by his amiable boyishness ... the facade works surprisingly well when Damon holds that gleaming smile just a few seconds too long, his Eagle Scout eyes fixed just a blink more than the calm gaze of any non-murdering young man. And in that opacity we see horror".^[14]

Charlotte O'Sullivan of Sight & Sound wrote, "A tense, troubling thriller, marred only by problems of pacing (the middle section drags) and some implausible characterisation (Meredith's obsession with Ripley never convinces), it's full of vivid, miserable life".^[15] Time named it one of the ten best films of the year and called it a "devious twist on the Patricia Highsmith crime novel".^[16]

James Berardinelli gave the film two and a half stars out of four, calling it "a solid adaptation" that "will hold a viewer's attention", but criticized "Damon's weak performance" and "a running time that's about 15 minutes too long."^[17] Berardinelli compared the film unfavorably with the previous adaptation, Purple Noon, which he gave four stars.^[18] He wrote, "The remake went back to the source material, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. The result, while arguably truer to the events of Highsmith's book, is vastly inferior. To say it suffers by comparison to Purple Noon is an understatement. Almost every aspect of René Clément's 1960 motion picture is superior to that of Minghella's 1999 version, from the cinematography to the acting to the screenplay. Matt Damon might make a credible Tom Ripley, but only for those who never experienced Alain Delon's portrayal."^[19]

In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "On balance, The Talented Mr. Ripley is worth seeing more for its undeniably delightful journey than its final destination. Perhaps wall-to-wall amorality and triumphant evil leave too sour an aftertaste even for the most sophisticated anti-Hollywood palate".^[20]

In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw wrote, "The Talented Mr. Ripley begins as an ingenious exposition of the great truth about charming people having something to hide: namely, their utter reliance on others. It ends up as a dismayingly unthrilling thriller and bafflingly unconvincing character study".^[21]

In her review for The Village Voice, Amy Taubin criticized Minghella as a "would-be art film director who never takes his eye off the box office, doesn't allow himself to become embroiled in such complexity. He turns The Talented Mr. Ripley into a splashy tourist trap of a movie. The effect is rather like reading the National Enquirer in a café overlooking the Adriatic".^[22]

Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has cited The Talented Mr. Ripley as one of his favorite films of all time.^[23] He hired its composer, Gabriel Yared, to write a theme for his own film, The Lives of Others, and its cinematographer, John Seale, to work on his second feature, The Tourist.

Accolades

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Discover more about Reception related topics

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance, the original inspiration comes from a scene featuring tomatoes in the Canadian film Léolo (1992).

Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged. Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Doyle, and Julie Doyle Roberts in 1999, and is owned by Fandom, Inc. as of 2023.

CinemaScore

CinemaScore

CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times said Ebert "was without question the nation's most prominent and influential film critic," and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him "the best-known film critic in America."

Janet Maslin

Janet Maslin

Janet R. Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as a Times film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin helped found the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York. She is president of its board of directors.

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular culture. The magazine debuted on February 16, 1990, in New York City.

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Lisa Schwarzbaum is an American film critic. She joined Entertainment Weekly as a film critic in the 1990s and remained there until February 2013.

James Berardinelli

James Berardinelli

James Berardinelli is an American film critic and former engineer. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ReelViews. Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of reviews of movies on DVD and video. He is also a fantasy novelist, publishing a trilogy from 2015 through 2016 known as The Last Whisper of the Gods.

Purple Noon

Purple Noon

Purple Noon is a 1960 crime thriller film directed by René Clément, loosely based on the 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. The French/Italian international co-production stars Alain Delon in his first major film, along with Maurice Ronet and Marie Laforêt ; Billy Kearns plays Greenleaf's friend Freddy Miles, and Romy Schneider appears briefly in an uncredited role as Freddie Miles' companion. The film, principally in French, contains brief sequences in Italian and English.

René Clément

René Clément

René Clément was a French film director and screenwriter.

Andrew Sarris

Andrew Sarris

Andrew Sarris was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism.

Amorality

Amorality

Amorality is an absence of, indifference towards, disregard for, or incapacity for morality. Some simply refer to it as a case of not being moral or immoral. Amoral should not be confused with immoral, which refers to an agent doing or thinking something they know or believe to be wrong.

The Talented Mr Ripley is the third big-screen Ripley adaptation, following 1960's Purple Noon and 1977's The American Friend. It was followed by 2002's Ripley's Game and 2005's Ripley Under Ground, but none of the films form an official series. The Talented Mr Ripley is the most popular Ripley adaptation. ^[28]

Discover more about Adaptations related topics

Purple Noon

Purple Noon

Purple Noon is a 1960 crime thriller film directed by René Clément, loosely based on the 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. The French/Italian international co-production stars Alain Delon in his first major film, along with Maurice Ronet and Marie Laforêt ; Billy Kearns plays Greenleaf's friend Freddy Miles, and Romy Schneider appears briefly in an uncredited role as Freddie Miles' companion. The film, principally in French, contains brief sequences in Italian and English.

The American Friend

The American Friend

The American Friend is a 1977 neo-noir film by Wim Wenders, adapted from the 1974 novel Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith. The film features Dennis Hopper as career criminal Tom Ripley and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Zimmermann, a terminally ill picture framer whom Ripley coerces into becoming an assassin. The film uses an unusual "natural" language concept: Zimmermann speaks German with his family and his doctor, but English with Ripley and while visiting Paris.

Ripley's Game (film)

Ripley's Game (film)

Ripley's Game is a 2002 thriller film directed by Liliana Cavani. It is adapted from the 1974 novel Ripley's Game, the third in Patricia Highsmith's series about the murderous adventures of the anti-hero Tom Ripley. John Malkovich stars as Ripley, opposite Dougray Scott and Ray Winstone. It received positive reviews. Highsmith's novel was previously adapted in 1977 as The American Friend by director Wim Wenders, starring Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz.

Ripley Under Ground (film)

Ripley Under Ground (film)

Ripley Under Ground is a 2005 German-British-French crime thriller film directed by Roger Spottiswoode and based on the 1970 second novel in Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley series. It stars Barry Pepper as Ripley and features Willem Dafoe, Alan Cumming and Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles.