Kisum

That is exactly what I thought while watching this. It's a vibe. It's a feel. It's a retro dream state. Like a great Lana song.

I actually read the book after watching both versions of the film. It doesn't move any faster, as some claim, but it does have its own very cool vibe. For example, it opens with the Lady waking up in the bathroom after the assault, so you're in her mind set, in a First person narrative, as she tries to puzzle it out. I would like to see a third film version with VO that attempts this. In all versions the pay off doesn't really pay off, but it's not the point. It's a mystery box that keeps the motor running while you enjoy the cool ride with an exotic cocktail. Freya alone makes this worth watching. But it's so much more. Original version is great too.

With the director. Oh, same guy.

Hampered by clunky, ham-fisted direction. You don't believe anything happening. Unintentionally comic? Who knows? But the script is okay. Strong characters and events.

This is not like a Coen Brothers mix of wicked humor, cosmic irony, and fallible humans caught up in an absurd crime situations, this tone is just goofy ballish. As if an Adam Sandler walked into Dog Day Afternoon. The way Josh flips the fake gun around ruins any sense of verisimilitude for this character.

The schizo score doesn't help, vacillating between cheesy comic and thriller. The actors seem like they're in entirely different movies. Features the least convincing and menacing biker gang ever seen. The blocking, lighting, and performances are pushed toward the whacky while the script screams to just be played as if it's real.

If it had been directed so we believe it, and if all the actors had been directed play it straight, this would have been something pretty good.

Having just reread the novel, so I could immerse myself in this series, I became very bored almost immediately.

At first, the cinematography is striking. Beautiful. But it soon becomes tiresome "shoe leather," meaning all the stuff you don't need for the story. Like the leather a master shoemaker cuts away to make a fine pair of Ferragamos.

Ripley walks down the stairs, walks out the door, walks down the street, turns a corner, walks another street, gets to a car, opens the door, gets in, drives off and so on endlessly. All gorgeously shot, sharp angles, classic architecture, but you've just watched 12 shots in a long minute of screen time that was very similar to the last 12 shots and the next 12 and so on endlessly through every episode.

It could work as "atmosphere" if there was a motor driving the suspense. But we're so far ahead of the story, and so distanced from Ripley, who's sadly miscast, as is everyone, that it all becomes deadeningly dull.

Without the inner thoughts of Ripley, which drives the novel, you need to visually nail the characters. The way they move, look, talk and behave. There's way too many static scenes, often non-actors, looking into the camera and just robotically dumping information.

It starts in the very first scene with Dickie's father. We don't know why he wants his son back. It should be an actor with weight, like John Huston in the Chinatown. So we understand the psychology of the father-son dynamic. I'm sure it felt like a bold choice to cast a writer friend as the father, but the series comes a dead stop before it even gets going. Everything is treated as information, and coverage, rarely revealing inner dynamics or deeper story.

Compared to the two previous brilliant movie adaptations - this is a risky misfire from a great writer that will vanish like most of the trendy series remakes of great films, i.e., THE IPCRESS FILE. This adaptation is the closest to the book, but the furthest in spirit.

The Minghella feature version adds new characters, and an entirely new arc for Ripley, but goes deeper into story and style in 2 1/2 hours than this entire series.

PURPLE NOON also is also superior with inventive ways of externalizing the inner dynamics of Ripley combined with the fantastic casting of Delon.