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Ripley’s Game
Really Not Good
2002
Director: Liliana Cavani
Starring: John Malkovich, Dougray Scott
Don’t bother.
THE SETUP:
Tom Ripley is older, but still up to his old tricks. In this film he manipulates a simple man into killing another.
DISCUSSION:
I had read so many positive reviews of this, and followed the entire story about how it wasn't going to be released in theaters, and I bought the whole line of "it's too good for the mainstream movie marketplace." The reality is, it's not really that good, and I don't think it deserved a theatrical release. Let's count the ways:
The characterization of Tom Ripley is way off. I haven't read the books, but a friend of mine has, and he says that in later life Ripley is just leading a nice European life, and doesn't kill unless forced to by the appearance of someone from his past. That's fine, they can depart from the books, but it would be better if they didn't do it in such a dumb way. In the first scene here he throws a snit and kills an assistant without much motivation. And, I'm sorry, I know Ripley is a talented murderer, and he gets away with many things, but are there NO police in Italy? Malkovich is good in the role, it's just poorly written. The problem with having a main character with no remorse is that nothing means anything to him, and it's very easy for the character completely inert rather than fascinating.
Dougray Scott just isn't that good. The movie could possibly been made good had Ralph Fiennes been in this role.
Although I am an admirer of Ennio Morricone, for the first hour of this film I was thinking "So do they only have ONE 30-second piece of music for this whole movie?" It is also LUDICROUS that this harpsichord piece which is little more than a vamp is presented as a concert piece at a recital by a professional player.
How often in any movie do you notice the lighting, unless it's particularly good? In this movie, I noticed it due to how bad it is. In many scenes, particularly exteriors, you could really tell where the main light was, just out of frame.
This movie was also trying DESPERATELY to impress with just how very cultured and elegant it is! Unfortunately it is all the Conde Nast kind of cultured, very generic idea of European "good life." [Keep those truffles on screen!]
The character motivations are also all over the place, and you end the movie unsure of WHY what you just saw unfolded.
Oh dear, big disappointments all over. You could do worse, but you could also do a lot better.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
I don’t think so, but a lot of other people seem to like it.
RELATED MOVIES:
A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM features Michael Caine as a character who discovers he can murder and get away with it. I recall it being decent, but that was a few years ago.
