(Movie) The Talented Mr Ripley directed by Anthony Minghella

The first thing that hits you about this movie is the incredible cast. You expect something riveting. And boy, you get it. What I found best was Matt Damon. He plays the ethical lawyer, the foot soldier, the global spy, a killer. And he makes all of it believable.

His role here, as a killer, is almost eerie in its perfection. The fact that he becomes an accidental killer who then becomes a habitual one takes on a terrifying air mainly because only Damon’s (Ripley) eyes betray the man he is becoming, though at the end, his gait also changes. You can almost see a physical transformation in the Ripley from the start of the movie till the end. You really need to get into the skin of the character to pull off something like this. You see a man, ambitious with some uncommon talents but harmless, getting transformed into a murderer and you sympathize with him.

Ripley is given a mission by Dickie’s (Jude Law) father, a shipping tycoon, to bring his errant son back home from Italy. Ripley goes there and falls in love with everything that Dickie’s life represents. And he becomes a small part of it for some time as Dickie takes him in. Ripley begins to feel that he has gained a right to continue to be a part of it. An altercation ensues between him and Dickie and Dickie unceremoniously dumps him from his life. That’s when it all begins. And that’s also when the fun of the movie begins. And you end up wanting, well, everyone to win!

That’s the main reason, I believe, why the movie is so damn arresting. You sympathize with every character in the movie but you are drawn to Ripley, even though he is slowly bumping off every one of those characters. And at the end, when you see Ripley really alone with himself, you are drawn even more because somewhere inside, you seem to understand that in a way, its all about circumstances and making some critical choices that made him the way he is. And you get a hint of the shape of things to come after the credits roll out, which is the perfect ending to the movie because you see the downward spiral quite visibly and by not showing anymore, the ending becomes even more terrifying…

A great movie and a movie that does immense justice to the cast strength

Labels: movies, thriller

posted by Protik Basu @ 8:46 PM