Ein sterbender Familienvater in Geldnot, wird überredet, einen Verbrecherboss zu ermorden.Ein sterbender Familienvater in Geldnot, wird überredet, einen Verbrecherboss zu ermorden.Ein sterbender Familienvater in Geldnot, wird überredet, einen Verbrecherboss zu ermorden.
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- Drehbuch
- Hauptbesetzung
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- 3 Nominierungen insgesamt
- Shoe Shop Owner
- (as Emidio Lavella)
- Dr. Wentzel
- (as Nikolaus Deutsch)
- Guleghin
- (as Yurij Rosstalnyj)
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I remember sitting in a theatre, what seems like years ago now, and viewing the trailer for Ripley's Game starring John Malkovich. I wondered if it was a sequel to the Matt Damon vehicle, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and I raced home to find that was exactly the case. Looking back, I cannot remember a date being flashed across the screen as to when Ripley's Game would be accessible, but usually it only takes a few months before our thirsts are quenched.
Then came 2004, and my local DVD provider began to advertise Ripley's Game as an upcoming release on disc. At first, I couldn't remember why the name was so familiar, but after a quick internet check, I found that two years later, Ripley's Game was being released without ever hitting a theatrical venue in North America. Too bad.
Ripley's Game gives us an older Tom Ripley. Gone are the chiseled good looks and innocent smile of Matt Damon and in are the glacial stares of the stoic Malkovich. When we catch up to Tom he is still the con man brokering an art forgery transaction that leaves one dead and Ripley unamused. We quickly forward ahead three years to Italy where we find Ripley in his favorable environment. Tom is living in a luxurious villa and has a woman he completely adores.
Ripley's old life soon catches up with him and a former associate looks to Tom for help with some Russian mafia types. Ripley suggests the use of an innocent' for the job and gives him the name of a fellow countryman Tom has a slight distaste. Soon the novice is coerced into contract killings becomes part of Ripley's dastardly web of deception and murder, and the two join forces to first complete a contract and then later to save each other's lives.
It's great to have a film that picks up a fascinating character years after. Wouldn't you like to see what Forrest Gump is up to in 2004? Or what about Elliot from E.T. or Michael Douglas from Fatal Attraction? Without parading sequels that try and catch a character one second from the time the final frame of the original finished, wouldn't it be fresh to check in on some of our faves? Well Ripley's Game does just that.
As Ripley, Malkovich gives us an incredibly restrained performance. He kept me thinking that this is probably what Hannibal Lecter would be like if he had a family or other interests. Whether he is talking to someone about the restoration of a vintage piano or killing someone in a train's restroom, his pulse never seems to race nor does he seem terribly concerned about the chaos left in his wake.
Even when he surprises us by showing up to help the same man he pulled into his world, we don't see it as guilt or an attempt to show dominance in the world of criminal activity. Instead, Malkovich projects a man who is just going about his business no matter what the reprehensible activity may encompass.
Ripley's game is an exceptional film that unfortunately got ignored by the Hollywood studio system. Maybe they were too busy with the Lord of the Rings trilogies. But, if I were to add up all the movie tickets for movies like Eurotrip, 50 First Dates and Starsky & Hutch, it even seems more of a waste that I wasn't given the opportunity to get comfortable in the local multi-plex for Ripley.
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The character of Tom Ripley is a fascinating one, and he is played to complete perfection here by John Malkovich who manages to capture both Tom's charm and even kindness as well as his dangerous side. Though he lacks Matt Damon's boyish charm, this is Ripley later on, and Tom has added to his survival skills. For Ripley, it's all part of the game.
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" was a very disappointing film with great scenery and some incredible absurdities; this film is not without some absurdity but here, because of the director and Malkovich's handling of the material, the absurdity of the scene on the train would almost be funny if the reality of it wasn't so gruesome. In "The Talented Mr. Ripley," stupidity was played stupidly, such as Tom pretending to be David while Philip Seymour Hoffman was in the next room.
I found this film much better, much more suspenseful and compelling. I hope Malkovich has another chance to play Ripley.
The film begins with Ripley committing a brutal murder. However, much of the movie is not about Ripley the assassin but Ripley the master manipulator. Years pass and Ripley notices a young, cocky Jonathan (Dougray Scott) making fun of him at a party. Later, Ripley learns this same man is dying from cancer...and he uses this information to eventually turn this genuinely decent man into a killer...almost as if he's some science fair project! What's next? See the film.
I must warn you that this film has some very brutal and vivid murders....and it's NOT a kid's movie!! But it also is very well written, acted and is very engaging and a savvy look at just what sociopaths are capable of doing.
It's more absorbing to watch without knowing anything of the plot, so I'll skip plot details and just say it has elements of Highsmith's other suspense tales (innocent man drawn into a murder for hire scheme) and most closely resembles her "Talented Mr. Ripley" story so successfully brought to the screen a few years ago.
John Malkovich, with his strange acting mannerisms makes a quirky anti-hero as Ripley and gets excellent support from Dougray Scott who makes the innocent carpenter a believable and sympathetic collaborator. Ray Winstone makes the obnoxious Reeves a vivid character. The train sequence involving the second murder is extremely well done.
Highly recommended as a vivid, colorful thriller.
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- WissenswertesFinancial difficulties caused shooting delays which meant director Liliana Cavani had to leave the production before filming had been completed, due to a previous commitment to direct an opera at La Scala in Milan. John Malkovich took over and completed the film, directing around a third of the footage. Consequently, this marks his unofficial debut as a director.
- PatzerAs Tom Ripley leaves the Trevannys' house after the home invasion, he tells Sarah to call the police and report it as a burglary gone wrong. However, he takes the gun he used to kill the two 'burglars', and which will make it difficult for Sarah to explain how the two men were killed with a gun that is no longer there.
- Zitate
Tom Ripley: I'm a creation. A gifted improviser. I lack your conscience and when I was young that troubled me. It no longer does. I don't worry about being caught because I don't believe anyone is watching. The world is not a poorer place because those people are dead. It's one less car on the road. It's a little less noise and menace. You were brave today. You put some money away for your family. That's all.
Jonathan Trevanny: If you lack my conscience, why did you help me on the train?
Tom Ripley: I don't know, but it doesn't surprise me. The one thing I know is we're constantly being born.
- VerbindungenFollowed by Ripley Under Ground (2005)
- SoundtracksYou Are Everything
Composed by Thom Bell & Linda Creed
(c) Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.
By kind permission of Warner/Chappell Music Ltd.
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Details
- Erscheinungsdatum
- Herkunftsländer
- Sprachen
- Auch bekannt als
- El amigo americano
- Drehorte
- Villa Emo, Fanzolo, Vedelago, Treviso, Veneto, Italien(Ripley's house)
- Produktionsfirmen
- Weitere beteiligte Unternehmen bei IMDbPro anzeigen
Box Office
- Budget
- 30.000.000 $ (geschätzt)
- Weltweiter Bruttoertrag
- 6.200.970 $
- Laufzeit
- 1 Std. 50 Min.(110 min)
- Farbe
- Sound-Mix
- Seitenverhältnis
- 1.85 : 1