The complex relationship between identity and wealth is explored in an elaborate but cruel way
Heist movies or perfect heist movies have an exciting component due to the voyeuristic fascination. For a moment we can be in the same boat as a group of criminals who, for more or less understandable reasons, are planning a ploy to steal important resources from higher institutions or personalities. We can even afford it Leave questions about the characters’ morals at the door.
But sometimes the problem can’t help but come back to the surface from the depths in which we’ve buried it when the character in question turns out to be particularly reprehensible. But we are equal forced to be in your perspective, probably for good reason chosen by the filmmakers on duty. This is what makes unconventional crime films like “The Talented Mr. Ripley” so fascinating.
Fake it until you make it
Anthony Minghella’s exquisite film, featuring a lush cast including Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, is now available to stream on Netflix and HBO Max. A crime film that is as elaborate as it is perverse where the thriller is suggestively twisted until it no longer seems like one at all.
Damon is the Ripley of the title. A man from a lower social class Aspirations to rise to higher ranks. As a musician at a party, he borrows a Princeton jacket for the performance, which will later be the reason why one of the millionaires at the party mistakes him for one of his son’s college classmates. To maintain the confusion, Ripley accepts this man’s mission to rescue her son from the seductive Italian lands where he seems to want to waste his life.
“Waste” is a way of interpreting the hedonism that Jude Law’s character falls into, full of privilege and a beauty that Ripley wants to have access to. Although sometimes it seems to be the “fake it until you make it” that seems to characterize the American personality. In Ripley’s case it’s more complex, as she’s not so concerned with maintaining her cover to maintain her status become the cover itself.
“The Talented Mr. Ripley”: Fascination with beauty
It’s a terrible ambition, also shaped by the fascination that Law’s character exerts on him. A fascination that borders on attraction, with a figure for whom beauty and wealth are inextricably linked. Minghella studies this complex psychology with incredible sensitivity which subverts a conventional but stylish crime thriller with melodrama.
A strategy that partially worked for Alfred Hitchcock with Strangers on a Train, another great adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s work (although this one was more exciting in its thriller aspect). “The Talented Mr. Ripley” explores a rather villainous individual with remarkable curiosity, using twisted intrigue and lavish imagery (incredible photography by John Seale), but with a hint of concern. Characteristics that define it an eternal film and deserves more nominations and praise than Minghella’s previous film, The English Patient.
