The human psyche isn't always easy to decipher. When it concerns the spectrum of human behavior, logic sometimes takes a backseat to passion and emotion. Actions and reactions cease to make sense and the line between good and evil quickly dissipates in a pool of blood.
In "The Talented Mr. Ripley," director Anthony Minghella attempts to chronicle the extent to which a single lie can cascade into an avalanche of mistrust, malice and violence.
Matt Damon plays Tom Ripley, a sort of social chameleon who aspires to ascend to the ranks of the New York elite. His motive is not really greed or an attempt to succeed financially; instead he merely wants an image. He rationalizes at one point that, "It's better to be a fake somebody, than a real nobody."
The opportunity to create himself arises when he is hired by a shipping magnate to go to Italy and retrieve the man's prodigal son, Dickie Greenleaf. At first, it seems that Ripley may succeed on his own at becoming someone, but it soon becomes clear that money is a prerequisite for prestige. To solve this problem, he kills Dickie and takes on his persona.
The movie is a masterpiece on almost all fronts. The cast is deceptively good, with all delivering solid performances (many not in their native accents). Especially good are Damon and Jude Law, who plays Dickie. Damon sheds his usual all-American image to deliver a performance laced with humility, frustration and, ultimately, desperation. And, while the meek Ripley is a mere shell of a man, when under the guise of Dickie Damon plays the part with arrogance and poise. Law is equally imposing as the young playboy. His likeable exterior masks something darker. He's easy to like and, when necessary, equally easy to hate. The female cast members, Cate Blanchett and Gwyneth Paltrow, do admirable jobs in somewhat less vital roles.
Minghella's direction is both elegant and sophisticated. The style that he created in his earlier masterpiece, "The English Patient," interweaves his sophomore effort with a similarly rich texture. The film ultimately succeeds because Minghella is uses the medium to recreate 1950s Italy. The film has an European feel to it, drawing upon the works of Godard's France and Fellini's Italy.
More importantly though, Minghella utilizes the environment to comment on the state of Ripley's fragile mind. The small towns of Italy at the beginning of the film reflect the carefree nature of Dickie and Ripley's relationship. Minghella illuminates his actors with natural sunlight, giving Paltrow an angelic glow. Later, when the film takes on a darker note, the setting shifts to the monumental architecture and claustrophobic alleyways of Venice.
Ultimately, the film is about the fight between good and evil that has been raging for millennia. Instead of implementing a more traditional schism between the two forces, the film wages the battle inside the mind of Tom Ripley. The film takes an impartial view as to whether Ripley should be considered evil though. He's neither portrayed as an innocent corrupted by evil nor as an inherently evil character. Instead, Ripley falls somewhere in the middle. At first he does it out of necessity, but eventually he begins to relish the opportunity. He's someone who knows what he's doing and is enjoying it. Eventually, Ripley realizes the flaws in his thinking, but by then he is a victim of his own situation. In this ambiguous portrayal of evil, Ripley comes off as a sort of an anti-hero in the vein of Norman Bates or, more recently, Hannibal Lecter.
The film's greatest triumph is the unflinchingly realistic spin in which it looks at life. It employs characters instead of caricatures. Evil isn't personified concretely; character's can't be identified by a single trait. There's something terrifying about the idea that remorseless, uncontrollable evil can exist behind an otherwise normal veneer. And, in the end, perhaps that's what most frightening and most striking about the film.
Grade: A
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