So good and so sad. It has been years since I saw it the first - and last - time, and I only remembered that it was good, but nothing more. I'm not even sure I really understood it the first time. It's based on a novel I haven't read, but I've read another book written by Patricia Highsmith so I'm not surprised that this one too was a mix between a psychological drama and a crime movie.
It all starts, as Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) says right at the beginning, because he 'borrowed' a friend's jacket. The friend was supposed to play the piano at a party but couldn't so asked Tom to replace him. Wearing his Princeton jacket, Tom went in his place and met Mr Greenleaf. Because of the jacket, Mr Greenleaf thought Tom was an ex Princeton student, and approached him saying Tom must know his son Dickie. Tom lied and said yes. As Tom will say at the end, he always thought it better to be a fake someone than a real nobody. So he lied and when, some other day, Mr Greenleaf proposed to pay him to go to Italy and bring Dickie back home, Tom accepted.
This is the start, an immediate look on Tom's personality.
During the long journey Tom learns as much as he can about Dickie, also listening to the jazz disks Dickie is so fond of. In South Italy Tom approaches Dickie (Jude Law) and his girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow) saying that they were at Princeton together, and hastily accepts Marge's invitation. Once at their house Dickie asks Tom what's his talent, and he very honestly replies that he's good at copying other people's signatures and at pretending to be someone else. Pity I don't remember the exact words. So early in the film it can be easily taken for a joke, but actually he's being honest, for once. That is his "talent".
Dickie finds him funny, but it would end soon without Tom's trick. He pretends to 'accidentally' drop his jazz disks, and the discovery that they both love jazz brings Dickie to invite Tom to a jazz club.
After that they spend a lot of time together; Tom has revealed to Dickie that he's paid to bring him back, so Dickie is enjoying very much this 'double-cross', because Tom reads to him his father's letters and they spend together his money.
Although engaged to Marge, spoiled Dickie has a relationship with Silvana (Stefania Rocca), but unfortunately for her it's only sex for him, and one day she commits suicide. Dickie reveals to Tom that Silvana was pregnant: she had asked for his help, but he wouldn't give her a cent, the bastard. This is 1958-59 and she was not married.
Tom says he'll keep his secret forever, because he's so gripped by this Dickie (who is, let's admit it, annoyingly beautiful) he'd do anything for him.
During a trip to Rom, Tom meets Dickie's friend Freddy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and immediately looks annoyed and hurt to be now in second place. Marge explains to him that this is how Dickie is: he makes you feel special when he pays you all his attention, but he is also a very fickle person, something like that. Personally I'd say that he's a spoiled, rich brat who only cares about his own entertainment and doesn't care at all about others. I don't like Dickie at all, does it show? :-p
This is just the beginning, because nothing has happened yet.
Tom's "job" has ended, they won't receive any more money from his father, and Dickie shows no pain in saying goodbye to Tom, but before that they take a last trip together. During a boat trip, just the two of them, Tom says he's thinking of getting a house in Rome in order to be together (at Tom's house when in Rome, at Dickie's house when in Mongibello) but Dickie doesn't think it a good idea, so Tom says that he doesn't have to worry about the "Marge problem", and here it all starts. Dickie says she's not a problem, he loves her and he's going to marry her, and Tom gets angry saying that he doesn't really know what he wants, looking at every girl, loving Marge, loving Tom, but Dickie stops him with a blunt "I don't love you" and then he keeps talking, saying how Tom can be boring and annoying and how he's glad to see him go because he's had enough of him, things like that. Tom begs him to stop but Dickie is on a roll and wouldn't stop, so Tom hits him with an oar in the head. Dickie is now bleeding quite heavily, and Tom tries to help him, he's shocked and he probably doesn't want to lose him, but Dickie becomes a fury and throws himself at Tom determined to strangle him, shouting quite coherently that he wants to kill him.
Tom tries to stop him, and kicks him away, but Dickie won't calm down so Tom takes hold of the oar again and hits Dickie until he dies. I can imagine the book, here, from Tom's point of view, explaining how Dickie's words were hurting him and how he couldn't take it anymore and needed it to stop.
Tom sinks the boat with the body and swims ashore. Going back to the hotel, he is mistaken for Dickie and he plays along, he probably gets right here the idea of impersonating Dickie.
He tells Marge that Dickie has decided to stay in Rome, takes all his stuff and then rents a house in Rome as Dickie while staying at a hotel as Tom Ripley. He even calls himself leaving messages, maybe to make more true the fantasy, who knows.
He spends Dickie's money, faking his signature. He meets Meredith (Cate Blanchett) and as Dickie he spends some time with her, and one night they go to the opera where he meets Marge and her friend Peter. Tom was scared they might meet Meredith, but Peter seemed very glad to know him. I liked Peter a lot, how tenderly he looked at Tom.
Tom 'breaks up' with Meredith now that Marge is in town, but then troubles come with the face of Freddy, looking for Dickie. He can feel that something's not right, and he gets worse when he sees the house owner (I think) calling Tom "Dickie". Freddy hurries back inside, but Tom's waiting for him behind the door, and smashes his head.
Of course the police come right away to talk to him, a few times since he is the major suspect. Feeling that things are getting too ugly, he writes a suicide note to himself signing Dickie's name, then escapes. He knows that the police will want to talk to him too (as Tom) and he can't do that with this inspector (Sergio Rubini) because he knows him as Dickie. He reaches Venice, where Peter is waiting for him. The police send someone from Rome but luckily for Tom is someone else, a colonel (Ivano Marescotti). Mr Greenleaf comes to Italy with a private investigator, who finds out a lot of things: the story with Silvana, and the fact that Dickie almost beat a guy to death at Princeton, so they believe that Dickie killed Freddy and that Tom was trying to help as a true friend. Only Marge believes that Tom killed Dickie and Freddy, after finding Dickie's rings among Tom's belongings.
[I liked a lot the scene when Tom gave Peter the key to his home :-) Peter is so sweet ]
Things look good for Tom now, he's free, everybody believes Dickie killed Freddy, and now he's alone with sweet Peter. Could it end here? Of course not :-/
Well, it's true that Tom's a murderer, so I shouldn't be on his side, and yet when you follow the story you feel for him. Neither Dickie or Freddy were nice, good people, but of course did not deserve this. And yet I feel for Tom, so sad and so tormented: he tells Peter that 'people' put all the bad things in their lives in a dark cell and try to forget about it, but it's not possible and it's so cold and dark there..
I admit it was so nice to see Tom and Peter together, I was kind of hoping for a happy ending for them, but of course I knew it wasn't possible.
During some kind of boat trip [Tom: you know what I miss right now? Peter: what? Tom:nothing .....]
Tom is alone for a few minutes and he meets Meredith with lots of relatives. They know him as Dickie, and there is no escape this time, so Tom goes to Peter's cabin, hugs him and tells him of how much he wishes to be free to be himself, and Peter tells him what lovely person he is, right before being strangled by a Tom crying desperately. He loved Peter but it was the only was to save himself.
The film ends on Tom's face, like life has been drained out of him, then the dark comes to cover him: the end. He'll never get out of that dark place...
Poor Peter... :-((
Anthony Minghella - screenplay and directed by.
ITA il talento di Mr Ripley
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