Interesting, like everything with Malkovich in it, but not really very good. Sorry but I didn’t much like this Dougray Scott’s acting, and the film didn’t show enough Ripley, the interesting bit.
I haven’t read the book, but now I will, one day. The character is really interesting.
Tom Ripley is a criminal, but after his partner Reeves tried to double cross him somehow, he gives him the money and ends their partnership. He leaves Berlin and settles in Italy, with his wife Luisa, a musician. He’s always calm, and doesn’t make much of a fuss when he overhears Jonathan make some rude remarks about him. Jonathan had invited him to his house for a party, maybe he didn’t really believe Tom would go, but once there, Tom first meets Jonathan’s kind wife Sarah then hears him talking to other men, maybe a bit drunk, I’m not sure.
When Reeves shows up again at his house, and tells him he needs to get rid of a Russian rival. After thinking about it, Tom gives him Jonathan’s name, saying he’s an innocent, therefore unknown, but that he thinks he might be capable of it. Jonathan is dying of leukemia, and Reeves offers him 50.000$ to kill a man. Jonathan refuses, so Tom tells Reeves to raise it to 100.000, that he himself would give him the rest of the money. Reeves also offers Jonathan a visit with a specialist in Berlin. Jonathan accepts that, even though the doctor can tell him little more than he already knew. Then he accepts the job, takes the gun and shoots the Russian gangster while he’s visiting a museum. He comes back home, thinking it’s all over, but later Reeves asks him for another job. Jonathan refuses, but Reeves sort of threatens his family, so he has to do it. It’s much more difficult though, he should strangle a man on a train.
When Reeves tells Tom of this, he is opposed to the idea, he doesn’t want Jonathan to do any more, but knowing that Reeves will go on anyway, Tom goes on the train as well. When Jonathan wouldn’t be able to do it, Tom intervenes and strangles the man himself, along with his two men.
Once home, Jonathan has a hard time calming his wife after she found the money. He tries to tell her he won it at the roulette, but she doesn’t believe him.
Jonathan hears on the news that one of the man survived. Tom refuses to help Reeves when he comes to his house. He’s scared because they already tried to kill him, only managing to kill his housemate. Angry at him, Reeves shouts that he will lead them right to him, and then he tries to escape.
Tom calmly prepares himself to receive them at his house, sending both his maid and his wife away. Jonathan can’t stay home and joins Tom at his house to wait for the men to arrive. It’s just two of them, and Tom kills them both, after having the survivor of the train tell his boss on the phone that he saw them and they weren’t the men on the train, but that he killed them anyway.
Tom kills him after the phone call.
Jonathan’s wife comes to Tom’s house for answers about her husband, and is met with Jonathan pointing a gun at her, thinking it was another man. She runs away shocked.
Jonathan helps Tom get rid of the bodies, by putting them in their car and setting it on fire. Doing so, they see that they already got Reeves and killed him.
Tom drives Jonathan home, they speak calmly and Tom tells him it’s over. Jonathan thanks him. Tom wishes him good luck with his wife.
Tom drives away, but understands something is not right.
Jonathan enters his home to find two other men waiting for him, one threatening to strangle his wife. He begs them to stop, yells that he did it, he alone, he did it all himself, but they don’t care or don’t believe him and they are about to kill Sarah when Tom storms in shooting. He kills one and wounds another, who tries to shoot him in turn. Seeing this, Jonathan protects Tom with his body allowing him to kill the other man.
Tom doesn’t understand why he did it, and he tries to help Sarah by giving her Jonathan’s money and giving her instructions on what to say to the police, but she just cries and then spits in his face. Tom leaves.
That night, he hurries to attend Luisa’s concert. She smiles at him when she sees him, and he smiles back like nothing happened, but he thinks back to Jonathan’s sacrifice and his smile when he succeeded.
The end.
…
Actually, it seems to me like in this case, it was not really a matter of saving Tom or being selfless sacrificing himself for the man, no, I think Jonathan’s action was quite right and very much understandable. If Tom had been killed, the bad guy would have killed both Jonathan and his wife. Sure, there was the chance that the two men would kill each other, but why risk it? This way, with the other man dead but Tom alive, Jonathan was reasonably sure that his wife and son would be safe, and he was already dying of leukemia, and costing his family a lot of money on medicines.
He did the right thing, I approve.
Tom Ripley - John Malkovich
Jonathan Trevanny - Dougray Scott
Reeves - Ray Winstone
Sarah - Lena Headey
Luisa - Chiara Caselli
ITA il gioco di Ripley
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