Ripley's Game is the third Ripley story (by Patricia Highsmith) to be filmed, following 1960's Purple Noon (with Alain Delon as Ripley) and 1977's The American Friend (with Dennis Hopper as Ripley). Purple Noon was later remade as The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), with Matt Damon as Ripley, and here The American Friend is remade, with John Malkovich as Ripley.
In this story, Ripley's all grown up and has become quite the conniving scoundrel. Phrases like that are best at depicting the completely amoral Ripley, especially when put against a backdrop of Germany and Italy and Old Europe in general. It's not that Ripley doesn't care, it's that... well, okay, it's that Ripley doesn't care.
Ripley's pal Reeves (Ray Winstone) has a job that needs to be done, but when he asks Ripley to handle it, our resident evil-doer demurs - he has a better murderer in mind. Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott) is a framemaker whose son has leukemia. Ah, the perfect man for the job. Ripley offers Trevanny a lot of cash, drawing the innocent into his game.
The main problem with the movie is that there's no real urgency, no sense of peril. We understand from the get-go that Tom Ripley's a sociopath, but we're given no clues as to his intentions or motivations. And adding to the ennui is Malkovich himself. Ordinarily, I can't think of anyone better at playing a conniving scoundrel (see him in 1988's Dangerous Liaisons), but Malkovich is so understated in this role that often you can hardly hear what he's saying! For the lead character to be so quiet and unassuming ought to be a federal offense. What was the director thinking?
But even if the performance was stronger, the plot itself is rather pedestrian. Oh, sure, you get pretty scenery (it's well photographed), but the twists and turns are really a simple matter of connecting the dots. Almost any fool could see how this one ends.
In this story, Ripley's all grown up and has become quite the conniving scoundrel. Phrases like that are best at depicting the completely amoral Ripley, especially when put against a backdrop of Germany and Italy and Old Europe in general. It's not that Ripley doesn't care, it's that... well, okay, it's that Ripley doesn't care.
Ripley's pal Reeves (Ray Winstone) has a job that needs to be done, but when he asks Ripley to handle it, our resident evil-doer demurs - he has a better murderer in mind. Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott) is a framemaker whose son has leukemia. Ah, the perfect man for the job. Ripley offers Trevanny a lot of cash, drawing the innocent into his game.
The main problem with the movie is that there's no real urgency, no sense of peril. We understand from the get-go that Tom Ripley's a sociopath, but we're given no clues as to his intentions or motivations. And adding to the ennui is Malkovich himself. Ordinarily, I can't think of anyone better at playing a conniving scoundrel (see him in 1988's Dangerous Liaisons), but Malkovich is so understated in this role that often you can hardly hear what he's saying! For the lead character to be so quiet and unassuming ought to be a federal offense. What was the director thinking?
But even if the performance was stronger, the plot itself is rather pedestrian. Oh, sure, you get pretty scenery (it's well photographed), but the twists and turns are really a simple matter of connecting the dots. Almost any fool could see how this one ends.