Ripley's Game

`Coming soon to a theatre near you'. It's a phrase we hear or read in upwards of 7 times before each new movie we watch in the theatre. The trailers that precede this announcement come with both anticipation and expectation.

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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This movie is perhaps the best of the Ripley movies out there. Malkovich, cynical sociopath, with cool but deadly presence, is perfectly cast. Movie takes a fresh look at some moral issues, and, as with other material from Patricia Highsmith's pen, challenges common morality. Movie is shot on location, which is only appropriate. A bit old fashioned and not for the masses marinated in social media "culture", but if you liked Silence of the Lambs this might be a movie for you.

In Ripley's Game, the latest screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's series of novels, John Malkovich plays Tom Ripley, the bisexual art connoisseur whose game is manipulation of people for his own ends. The film directed by 70-year old Liliana Cavani, is entertaining but lacks the probing subtlety of Wim Wenders The American Friend, a 1979 Ripley adaptation. Ripley is an unscrupulous art dealer and also a cold-blooded killer. He is cerebral, wealthy, charming, talented, and entirely without principle with something clever to say about everything, even murder. "The most interesting thing", he says, "about doing something terrible is often, in a few days, you can't even remember it." Ripley justifies his acts by saying that they rid the world of useless predators. Malkovich's performance keeps the film afloat, though his smug, sinister persona often borders on camp and Dougray Scott is unconvincing as picture framer Jonathan Trevanny.

Ripley's Game takes place about twenty years after Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley leaves off. Ripley (Malkovich) has married into wealth and now resides in a luxurious Italian villa with his wife Luisa (Chiara Caselli), a professional harpsichord player. When an old crony, Reeves (Ray Winstone) asks him for help in dealing with Berlin mobsters threatening his business, Ripley thinks of a local art restorer and picture framer, Jonathan Trevanny (Scott) who is known to be dying of leukemia. Trevanny is a good candidate in Ripley's mind because he recently insulted him at a party by blurting out "That's the trouble with Ripley-too much money and no taste." Ripley's interest, however, is mostly in the pleasure involved of seeing a mild family man turned into a cold-blooded assassin, no matter how implausible the scenario might be. Trevanny falls for the bait and collects $100,000 to kill a Russian at the zoo.

As one hit deserves another, a second more dangerous plot is hatched to take place on a crowded train but Ripley has to come to Trevanny's rescue when too many bad guys show up. Afterwards, events begin spiraling out of control forcing the picture framer to hide the truth from his wife Sarah (Lena Headley). Though Malkovich fits into the role perfectly, Scott's performance provides little insight into what led a decent family man to become a paid killer. The ending, which could have been suspenseful, is simply unpleasant as the body count escalates. Though beautifully photographed and filled with dark humor, there is little at stake in Ripley's Game and the entire project feels unimportant as reflected in the studio's decision to bypass a theatrical release and send it straight to DVD.

The Tom Ripley character is one of the great characters of all time. In all the movies, Ripley is a complete sociopath...a man with no sense of conscience and who is willing to do anything to get what he wants in life. The's such a great character because he's so incredibly believable...a textbook example of the antisocial personality. While some incarnations of Ripley were quite gorgeous (especially Alaine Delon in the first Ripley film), this one features John Malkovich who brings his own take on the menacing man. In this case, he looks so incredibly ordinary...yet is a man who kills with zero remorse!

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.

Tom Ripley is at it again, this time in "Ripley's Game," a 2002 European production starring John Malkovich, Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone, and a host of European actors and actresses, all very good in their roles. Ripley at the beginning of the film is involved in an art scam with a partner, Reeves (Winstone). It doesn't go down quite as planned. The film picks up three years later in Italy where Tom is living la vida loca, fabulous house, gorgeous musician girlfriend, best cook around. He overhears himself being insulted by a picture framer, Jonathan Trevanny (Scott) while at a party. Later, Ripley's old partner appears and wants some people rubbed out, and Ripley suggests Trevanny. Knowing human nature as he does, he's pretty sure Trevanny will do it and in Ripley's world, a man's soul is fitting revenge for an insult. However, Reeves wants more than one job done. Ripley then becomes a little more involved than he wanted.

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.