THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY R
Starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Cate Blanchett
Eric says: ******* (7)
So, Matt Damon really can act. I wasn't expecting him to do so. I knew that Jude Law would be right on. Ms. Paltrow is virtually a given. Cate Blanchett is supposed to be the real thing. But Matt. I just pictured him as Ben Affleck's Siamese twin; joined at the mediocre-acting joint. Instead, he held his sociopath-in-the-making together throughout some extreme circumstances.
Talented...Ripley definitely felt like a book, a good, taut suspense/mystery yarn. A handful of intelligent characters in lush 1950's Italy interact in a mostly believable way. Damon is a nobody who accidentally scams a trip to Europe and becomes obsessed with a disenfranchised young American (Law) who has escaped to Italy with his fiancee Marge (Paltrow) to avoid his business-oriented father. Things become, well, complicated when Ripley starts to covet the young American, Dickie Greenleaf. Not only does he want Dickie's life, but he wants Dickie, too. Things become convoluted when another American (Blanchett) comes to believe that Ripley is Greenleaf. Things become ludicrously garbled when Dickie's old college friend starts hanging around. If that wasn't bad enough, an impregnated Italian dies, Ripley only has one blazer (a gold courderoy), and he murders Dickie. Naturally, the next logical option would be to become Greenleaf.
If it sounds labrynthine, you are correct, sir. Just like one of those books where the turn of every page reveals yet another burgeoning plot twist. Unfortunately, you feel every minute of the 2 1/2 hours, and everything the Blanchett character does feels so manufactured. She was entirely superfluous. We could have saved about 30 minutes without all of her too-convenient appearances. Nine stars for the acting. Seven for the movie.
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