Ripley's Game

Hold my watch, because it if it breaks I'll kill everyone on this train

I loved The Talented Mr. Ripley. Matt Damon gave an excellent performance, as did Jude Law, and it was my first introduction to the character of Tom Ripley. That was over a year ago.

I've now, for the first time, watched Ripley's Game, which I had heard from many people was awful. I decided not to see what the critics said (I usually prefer not to hear their opinion before I see a film, so as to not taint my experience). I love John Malkovich as an actor; he was superbly splendid in In the Line of Fire, playing yet another deranged psychopath to Clint Eastwood's secret service hero. That is a great movie. So is Ripley's Game.

The film involves Tom Ripley, who outright murders a man with a fire-poker within the first three minutes of the movie. He's a complete sociopath, yet at the same time, likable with a sense of dignity and class, and simply a man you'd love to have a conversation with. He's educated, he has taste for the arts, for wine, for decor; he's a well-round elitist. The conflict begins when Ripley, now living a luxurious life in Venice, attends a party hosted by his neighbor Trevanny (Dougray Scott). Minutes after entering the party, he overhears the host insulting Ripley: "he has all that money and no class." Soon, the members of this room notice Ripley standing at the door's edge, obviously having overheard these insults. Trevanny says to him "Oh hi, you're here. Excellent. We were hoping you'd show up." "Why?" Ripley says. "To add some spice to the evening," Trevanny responds. Thus begins Ripley constantly asking "Meaning?" to everything Trevanny says. It's an excellent scene that immediately establishes the social character of Tom Ripley. He really doesn't like to be insulted. And the terrifying suspense of every "meaning?" adds a great tension to a scene wherein, just mere minutes prior, we witnessed the without-restraint murder of someone via a fire-poker.

Ripley leaves the party, and days later, is asked by Reeves (Ray Winstone), to assassinate a rival mobster. Ripley, still irked by the insult Trevanny sent his way, suggests that Trevanny, not he, do the murder. He suggests a total innocent is best. And Winstone agrees, and thus begin the attempts to convince Trevanny to murder this mobster. He does, eventually, but then the true complications begin, for which he, nor Ripley, could have foreseen. They strike up an unlikely friendship, especially given that Trevanny initially insulted Ripley (which is no small deal to Tom Ripley).

From here, I shall not describe the plot. But it is a fascinating, wonderful, joyously entertaining one; the true Tom Ripley from the Patricia Highsmith novels. Matt Damon did a phenomenal job embodying Tom Ripley. Malkovich does an equally great, more mature, performance as the true Tom Ripley.

At one point, Ripley says to Trevanny, "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." Ripley truly is a man without a conscience, without concern for ordinary life; a true sociopath. But he does step in to help the man that once insulted him. Why? "I don't know he says."And when that man saves his life at one point, Ripley, in a moment of human curiosity, asks "Why did you do that?"

Malkovich portrays Tom Ripley in a glorious fashion. He's the Ripley we wanted all along; though I still love The Talented Mr. Ripley and stand by my four-star review of that film. This is simply a superior one.

I've learned the film was produced on a budget of $30 million, and not even theatrically released in the United States. and grossed the most theatrically in Australia at $2.6 million. It was a commercial flop, and why it wasn't released in the USA is beyond me. This is an amazing film, a near-masterpiece, that went to straight to DVD- and -cable in the United States. That is a remarkable shame. American theatrical audiences were deprived of an incredibly intelligent, maniacal, filmic experience.

****