Sign In / Sign Up

The Talented Mr. Ripley

The Talented Mr. Ripley
Release date: 1999-12-25
Rating: 7.2
Votes: 3905
Genres: Thriller, Crime, Drama
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

With his son off galavanting around Europe, the wealthy "Greenleaf" (James Rebhorn) happens upon the eponymous character (Matt Damon) whom he charges with travelling - first class - to track down "Dickie" (Jude Law) and bring him home. He manages an introduction to his quarry, and his girlfriend "Marge" (Gwyneth Paltrow), on an Italian riviera beach and suggesting they'd both gone to Princeton, manages to inveigle an invitation to lunch. Now "Tom" has done his research here. he knows "Dickie" loves jazz, and so by feigning a recently acquired interest in the music he manages to comprehensively ingratiate himself into their lives. The arrival of their mate "Freddie" (Philip Seymour Hoffmann) manages to unsettle the wealthy man who concludes that he wishes to be rid of his newly acquired parasite. Next thing, well "Dickie" appears to have done his best Greta Garbo "want to be alone" and "Tom" is providing an initial shoulder to cry on for "Marge" before they part company. Now we know what happened, so are not too surprised when we see "Tom" start to live the life he'd always wanted to, he hooks up with "Meredith" (Cate Blanchett) whom he met on the boat over, and a life of fraudulent frolics ensue. As ever, though, one lie is never enough and the reappearance of "Freddie" and a chance meeting with "Marge" at the opera starts to cause problems for "Tom" that only increase when "Greenleaf" arrives wanting to know what the hell is going on... This is one of these characterful mystery dramas that hits the ground running and uses a solid cast to keep the momentum going until a denouement that i felt was just a little too serendipitous but that still works well. Damon is on good form and it's not hard to see why Jude Law made it initially either. Paltrow is underused at the start but does come into her element more as the the plot thickens and by the end there is an enjoyable will he/won't he uncomfortableness about the ending. The photography is classy and stylish illustrating well the scenarios in which these spoilt and malevolent folks find themselves, there's a bit of humour and some cracking jazz to pepper this superior thriller.

Movie Recommendation

  • Cold Mountain
    Cold Mountain
    2003-12-24
    In this classic story of love and devotion set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier named W.P. Inman deserts his unit and travels across the South, aiming to return to his young wife, Ada, who he left behind to tend their farm. As Inman makes his perilous journey home, Ada struggles to keep their home intact with the assistance of Ruby, a mysterious drifter sent to help her by a kindly neighbor.
    More...
  • Sleuth
    Sleuth
    2007-10-12
    On his sprawling country estate, an aging writer matches wits with the struggling actor who has stolen his wife's heart.
    More...
  • Ripley's Game
    Ripley's Game
    2002-09-02
    Tom Ripley - cool, urbane, wealthy, and murderous - lives in a villa in the Veneto with Luisa, his harpsichord-playing girlfriend. A former business associate from Berlin's underworld pays a call asking Ripley's help in killing a rival. Ripley - ever a student of human nature - initiates a game to turn a mild and innocent local picture framer into a hit man. The artisan, Jonathan Trevanny, who's dying of cancer, has a wife, young son, and little to leave them. If Ripley draws Jonathan into the game, can Ripley maintain control? Does it stop at one killing? What if Ripley develops a conscience?
    More...
  • Under Suspicion
    Under Suspicion
    2000-08-24
    A lawyer is asked to come to the police station to clear up a few loose ends in his witness report of a foul murder. "This will only take ten minutes", they say, but it turns out to be one loose end after another, and the ten minutes he is away from his speech become longer and longer.
    More...
  • Good Will Hunting
    Good Will Hunting
    1997-12-05
    Headstrong yet aimless, Will Hunting has a genius-level IQ but chooses to work as a janitor at MIT. When he secretly solves highly difficult graduate-level math problems, his talents are discovered by Professor Gerald Lambeau, who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. When Will is arrested for attacking a police officer, Professor Lambeau makes a deal to get leniency for him if he gets court-ordered therapy. Eventually, therapist Dr. Sean Maguire helps Will confront the demons that are holding him back.
    More...
  • Dogma
    Dogma
    1999-10-04
    An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is called upon to save the existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels trying to exploit a loophole and reenter Heaven.
    More...
  • Sliding Doors
    Sliding Doors
    1998-04-23
    London publicist Helen, effortlessly slides between parallel storylines that show what happens when she does or does not catch a train back to her apartment. Love. Romantic entanglements. Deception. Trust. Friendship. Comedy. All come into focus as the two stories shift back and forth, overlap and surprisingly converge.
    More...
  • Pieces of a Woman
    Pieces of a Woman
    2020-12-30
    When a young mother's home birth ends in unfathomable tragedy, she begins a year-long odyssey of mourning that fractures relationships with loved ones in this deeply personal story of a woman learning to live alongside her loss.
    More...
  • Black Sea
    Black Sea
    2014-12-05
    A rogue submarine captain pulls together a misfit crew to go after a sunken treasure rumored to be lost in the depths of the Black Sea. As greed and desperation take control on-board their claustrophobic vessel, the increasing uncertainty of the mission causes the men to turn on each other to fight for their own survival.
    More...
  • Invictus
    Invictus
    2009-12-11
    Newly elected President Nelson Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby union team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.
    More...
  • Closer
    Closer
    2004-12-03
    A love story about chance meetings, instant attractions, and casual betrayals. Four strangers - with one thing in common: each other.
    More...
  • Bowling for Columbine
    Bowling for Columbine
    2002-10-09
    This is not a film about gun control. It is a film about the fearful heart and soul of the United States, and the 280 million Americans lucky enough to have the right to a constitutionally protected Uzi. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm with The Anarchist's Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old. Bowling for Columbine is a journey through the US, through our past, hoping to discover why our pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence.
    More...
  • Michael Clayton
    Michael Clayton
    2007-09-28
    A law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multi-billion dollar class action suit.
    More...
  • The Thirteenth Floor
    The Thirteenth Floor
    1999-04-16
    In Los Angeles, a wealthy man, known as Mr. Fuller, discovers a shocking secret about the world he lives in. Fearing for his life, he leaves a desperate message for a friend of his in the most unexpected place.
    More...
  • Boys Don't Cry
    Boys Don't Cry
    1999-09-02
    A young transgender man explores his gender identity and searches for love in rural Nebraska.
    More...
  • Enemy at the Gates
    Enemy at the Gates
    2001-02-28
    A Russian and a German sniper play a game of cat-and-mouse during the Battle of Stalingrad in WWII.
    More...
  • White Boy Rick
    White Boy Rick
    2018-09-14
    The story of Richard Wershe Jr., a teenager who became an undercover informant for the police during the 1980s, and was ultimately arrested for drug trafficking and sentenced to life in prison.
    More...
  • The Girl in the Fog
    The Girl in the Fog
    2017-10-26
    A gripping and chilling thriller that brings us to a hazy mountain village where an enigmatic detective is investigating the sudden disappearance of fifteen-year-old girl.
    More...
  • Rounders
    Rounders
    1998-09-11
    A young reformed gambler must return to playing big stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks.
    More...
  • Three Kings
    Three Kings
    1999-09-27
    A group of American soldiers stationed in Iraq at the end of the Gulf War find a map they believe will take them to a huge cache of stolen Kuwaiti gold hidden near their base, and they embark on a secret mission that's destined to change everything.
    More...

Similar Movies