In association with

The Talented Mr Ripley [2000]
from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman
directed by Anthony Minghella

Features:

• PAL
• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

"I feel like I've been handed a new life", says Tom Ripley at a crucial turning point of this well-cast, stylishly crafted psychological thriller. And indeed he has, because the devious, impoverished Ripley (played with subtle depth by Matt Damon) has just traded his own identity for that of Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), the playboy heir to a shipping fortune who has become Ripley's model for a life worth living. Having been sent by Dickie's father to retrieve the errant son from Italy, Ripley has smoothly ingratiated himself with Dickie and his lovely, unsuspecting fiancée, Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow). In due course, the sheer evil of Ripley's amoral scheme will be revealed.

Superbly adapted from the acclaimed novel by Patricia Highsmith (also the basis of the acclaimed French version, Purple Noon), The Talented Mr Ripley is writer-director Anthony Minghella's impressive follow-up to his Oscar-winning triumph The English Patient. Recreating late-1950s Italy in exacting detail, the film captures the sensuousness of la dolce vita while developing the fracturing of Ripley's mind as his crimes grow increasingly desperate. And where Hitchcock was necessarily discreet with the homosexual subtext of Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, Minghella brings it out of the closet, increasing the dramatic tension and complexity of Ripley's psychological breakdown. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Cate Blanchett are excellent in pivotal supporting roles, and the film's final image is utterly effective: Ripley's talents have gone too far, and this study of class distinction, obsession and deadly desire reaches a disturbing yet richly appropriate conclusion. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Fails to gel
  From the first reading of Highsmith's novel I felt she was a minor genius in evoking both the mind of a deeply disturbed character and the divided society of high elegance and low misery in which he moved and from which he was alienated. Was the split in his mind or the society's? Surely both. For years Holywood seemingly "bottled" out of confronting the issue as it avoided Highsmith's most masterly opus. This film was eagerly awaited. Disappointingly the whole comes to less than the sum of its parts. The... more info

• Stylish locations & an enthralling plot.
  This is an intelligent & captivating film which is based upon the art of deception & thinking on your feet.
  Set in the 1950's ,a time when the world was simpler & less commercial, it captures the wonderful decadence of post war Italy & the way that an outsider, Tom Ripley, worms his way into a world that is way above his station.
  It's well acted & has the plot develops at steady pace. Recommended

• interesting
  I like this film a lot.
  I am not at all a fan of gwyneth paltrow and jude law too is an actor whose presence has often kept me from watching certain movies. The same goes for cate blanchet. I found all of them rather good in this one.
  Philip Seymor Hoffmans presence does the oposite and in this film too, he is excellent,almost as creepy as matt damons character, ripley, he adds to the athmosphere very well. Matt Damon is excellent in this film.
  I really enjoyed it.
  The only funny... more info

• The Talented Matt Damon
  The Talented Mr Ripley is an unusual film, an eerie tale of jealousy, violence, loneliness, and desperation. Tom Ripley is a man who has, in his own mind, no self worth, no identity, and no substance. His ideas of life and existence depend on how he is perceived by others, and when that is no longer good enough..... Matt Damon is superb as the shy, self effacing Tom Ripley, an outwardly timid, unassuming man who shows little sign of what lurks beneath his pleasant front. Jude Law is also great as the vain,... more info

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