The Talented Mr Ripley (DVD)

‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ (1999) was director Anthony Minghella's follow up to the hugely acclaimed ‘The English Patient’. Because of this, I very nearly missed it. I LOATHED ‘The English Patient’ both as a book and a film and couldn’t think of Minghella without being reminded of the hours of utter boredom I’d been subjected to by his last effort (though not his fault – what CAN you do with a story as thin as that except put a couple of beautiful people in the frame and photograph them beautifully?). I was dragged along to TTMR by a friend, and how very glad I was. It is absolutely superb. ...  Read the complete review

Anthony Minghella's last film - The English Patient (1996) - scooped 9 Oscars and met with rapturous acclaim from all quarters. Just how do you follow that? The answer was with The Talented Mr. Ripley - via connections with Sydney Pollack, whose company had acquired the movie rights to Patricia Highsmith's classic tale of identity and deception. Initially hired to write the screenplay, once onboard he sought to helm the project as well. It's a story which has already been filmed, some 40 years earlier as Plein Soleil (starring French icon Alain Delon). This latest adaptation keeps closer to the tone and content of the book, however. ...  Read the complete review

If you are either of the above you will love this film. Not that the English Patient wasn't very good - it was just, what's the word... boring? Vertigo (see my opinion) is one of my favourite films of all time and has a darkness and a complexity not matched by Ripley but at least reminiscent. The Talented Mr. Ripley, although not as good as Vertigo, is an absolute classic. I have a friend who said "nothing happens for the first hour" - I promptly took an oar to him (or a marble bust - see the film - it's quite gory by the way, so I hope you're not too squeamish!). He didn't get entangled into the emotional complexities - ...  Read the complete review

Well having red wine with this film was a big mistake. What a complex film of deceit, lies, cover ups and confusion...it was very good. It centres on a man played by Matt Damon called Tom Ripley, who is sent on an errand by another mans father. He is to persuade the man, Dickie, played by Jude Law to return home to New York. Ripley has other ideas and begins assuming identities as soon as he arrives in Italy, where Dickie resides. Tom soon enters his circle of friends, then weird things happen, and the film takes many twists. It has excellent performances in it from Damon and Law, but also from the amazing Gwyneth Paltrow (what a great british ...  Read the complete review

Yesterday, oh joy of joys, my girlfriend and I both had the day off work together for a change. So we decided to be lazy and do nothing other than eat nice food and sit in front of the television watching movies. I choose the first film, Space Quest, which I am sure to write an opinion about soon, and then she choose The Talented Mr. Ripley. What a load of pants... Granted, yes I wasn't particularly set on watching what I thought would be a chick-flick, but it wasn't that type of film. It was a murder thriller kinda thang, but that still doesn't save it... Tom Ripley is talented, cos it does exactly what it says on the tin, see. Tom's ...  Read the complete review