Il gioco di Ripley

[s p o i l e r s]

There have been many cinematic Highsmith stories, and even many filmed Tom Ripley's. Why another one? Well, as I am hardly the first to say – Ripley's Game came out in England last summer, and had a brief theatrical showing in New York several months ago – there are ways in which John Malkovich was both born and bred to play the mature Mr. Ripley. Give the young one to Alain Delon or Matt Dillon: both were arguable versions of the fledgling scoundrel. But it's uncanny how well Malkovich wears the skin of the grown man. And it's cruelly weird that in America a film of this caliber could have been sent straight to DVD.

Life requires action, sometimes the slow patience of the lizard, other times the gift of abrupt violence. Ripley's accomplished murders and thefts, so bold, so risky, so improvisational, prove that he possesses the existential courage one needs to survive and enjoy life. As his reward for jobs well done, Tom occupies an expansive Palladian villa in Treviso with a beautiful harpsichordist. He enjoys the best wines, the best cars, and the best risotto made from truffles in his kitchen by the best cook in the Veneto. He knows the difference between a Guercino and a Parmigianino and he's never anything but well dressed. Markovich serves the role as well as it serves him: isn't he, like Ripley, a brash American turned well-heeled European sybarite?

The paradox of the Ripley novels is that a master criminal may also be good at the art of living, and the tricky thing about watching Malkovich is that one may be tempted to admire him. This isn't a new experience for the reader of Highsmith's many novels, particularly the Ripley ones: to enter the world of her criminals has the appeal of being bad and getting away with it. As Graham Greene famously said, `[Highsmith] has created a world of her own – a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger.' And yet within the first ten minutes we see Ripley kill a man with a poker for little more than mishandling some renaissance drawings.

The perfect foil for Ripley in the movie is Trevanny (Dugray Scott), a man whom fatal illness has given an edge of desperate bravado, but who remains sensitive to moral values. Eventually after being lured into committing a serious crime for big money (which he can leave to his wife and young son), Trevanny waits with Ripley in the villa for some gangsters bent on revenge and as they chat to pass the time he remarks that in school he always got caught.

Tom smiles and says, `You know why? Because you didn't think of just killing your teachers!'

John Malkovich hasn't very often played a nice person. Yes, he's been Biff in Death of a Salesman and Tom in The Glass Menagerie, but then we get to Lennie in Of Mice and Men and (triumphantly) Valmont in Dangerous Acquaintances and Gilbert Osmond in Portrait of a Lady. In between he has been an out and out villain as in In the Line of Fire, or supercilious prigs like Port in The Sheltering Sky and Jake in The Object of Beauty. Tom Ripley is Malkovich's triumph. It combines all of these. Is it a surprise that playing the wickedest man of all, he has never been more appealing? Finally all his slimy traits here come together. This is what he's about, we say. At last it all makes sense. Being Ripley has never been more fun and that's because the role fits the actor like a glove. There's something sublimely ugly about him that reminds us that good looks are not the only attractive features in a man. There is also power, taste, and originality. He's elegant, he's an esthete, and he's smart. When Reeves asks him if he has the extra fifty thousand he's offering, he just snaps his cell phone shut. The ruthless man is also impatient with stupidity.

This is an actor's film. Ray Winstone is superb in the smaller role of the abominable, self satisfied lowlife Reeves who comes to Ripley to get a murder done. Reeves is little more than a pretext for a caper, a reason for coming out of retirement, but Winstone makes him forward without ever being overdrawn. Dugray Scott is Trevanny, the picture framer in the Italian town near which Ripley lives who has acute myelogenous leukemia. Scott is an actor who looks both handsome and unwell. He may suffer a little too much, but he also has an admirable recessiveness that keeps the glamour Cavani spreads over her characters (they're all a bit too well dressed, but this film comes out of Italy, the land of 'bella figura') from overwhelming his essential weakness. He also illustrates the strength that comes to desperate men. He gets just as mean as Ripley toward the end, and he dies with a smile on his face.

This film shows us the two essential elements of Patricia Highmith's books: Tom Ripley is pure evil; and it's a lot of fun to be him. Cavani's suave Game gives the Devil his due. People unfamiliar with the Highsmithian sensibility may find the end unsatisfying. But it is perfectly in character.

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.

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.

Anyone who starts watching this little known film will have a hard time turning away. It takes Patricia Highsmith's novel and turns it into a stylish thriller, full of handsome interiors and lush location photography in Germany and Italy. Given the benefit of expert performances by John Malkovich, Dougray Scott and Ray Winstone, it's a tale that moves along at a fast clip and never lets go of the suspense.

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.

This was good; a solid crime story. It's the "Tom Ripley" of "The Talented Mr. Ripley," but now older and being played by John Malkovich instead of Matt Damon. He's also, at least to me, a totally different character so this story stands on its own. There's no tie-in to that previous film

Malkovich plays his normal role, playing the kind of character he's good at playing: the smart, sarcastic and sadistic villain with the interesting vocabulary. In this story, he blends in with the locals as somewhat of a nondescript guy but inside he's a man with no conscience who is a killer. Late in the film, he admits and brags about having no conscience.

The plot in this movie revolves around Ripley having someone else do some of the latest killings for him, an "average Joe" that no one would suspect. That role is played by Dougray Scott, a young Englishman with a wife and young son, but a man who is dying of leukemia and could use a little extra money for his family when he's gone. That seems to be the lure when the evil Ripley and his partner give him the murder sales pitch. It takes some convincing, but "Jonathan Trevanny" eventually gives in to some persuasion, shall we say. Scott's reaction after the killing is very interesting...and he gets another assignment.

Ripley's partner "Reeves" also is an intriguing guy, played by Ray Winstone who also often portrays this type of character: a vicious, profane thug. If you saw "Sexy Beast," you'll know the type of guy Winstone plays here

Anyway,without giving the story away, suffice to say this wound up a pleasant surprise: great dialog, good photography and acting, some dark humor along with good suspense and just the right amount of action and lulls. It is heavy on the profanity, so beware of that.

This is a film one doesn't hear much about and is recommended for those who enjoy modern-day, tough crime films.