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Reviewer: Dan Pinka
(This review gives away much of the plot but does not reveal the end of the film, so you have fair warning.) Well, don't believe what you see in the trailers. From the ads you expect Matt Damon (Mr. Ripley) to murder Jude Law (Dickie Greenleaf), take over his life and conduct a steamy affair with Gwenth Paltrow (Marge Sherwood). This slick trailer (which is a flat-out lie), is probably the main reason it is doing so well at the box office. I'm not saying that it isn't a well-made film with some strong messages. I'm just saying that it isn't what it purports to be. It lies to us from the start. "How far would you go to become someone else?" is the tag line for this film, or in the words of Tom Ripley, "I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody". Our first introduction to the title character is through a voice-over statement of regret as the camera slowly revolves around his expressionless face. He regrets the path his life has taken and would like to have done things differently. He sits quietly and appears to be feeling nothing. The film opens in 1950's New York, with Tom Ripley living in some sort of slum and working as a bathroom attendant in a ritzy club. One afternoon he borrows a Princeton jacket to play a rooftop piano recital in place of a friend. At the recital he meets Herbert Greenleaf, who mistakes Tom for someone who attended school with his son Dickie. After some hesitation, Tom decides to play off Herbert's misconceptions. Herbert Greenleaf wants his son to stop galavanting around Italy and come home to work in New York. Mr.Greenleaf offers to send Tom to Italy in order to persuade Dickie to come home. All expenses paid. "I've always wanted to go to Italy," muses Tom. As we watch Tom prepare to travel, we get the impression that something is not quite right about him. He is eerily detached from the world around him. We notice he has the ability to pick up details about people and use them to further his own interests. Once he arrives in Italy he fools Dickie into thinking that they went to Princeton together; in order to gain Dickie's confidence, Tom reveals he was sent by Mr. Greenleaf to persuade Dickie to return home. Dickie takes Tom under his wing and hatches a scheme to deceive his father into extending Tom's time in Italy. Tom grows more and more attached to Dickie and becomes very possessive of their friendship. Mr. Greenleaf eventually gives up on Tom and writes that he should return to New York; Dickie agrees. On their final trip together at sea, Dickie gives voice to his suspicions -- did they really know each other at Princeton? With a sense of urgency and desperation Tom confronts Dickie with his true feelings: he is in love with Dickie, and he believes that Dickie feels the same way. Tempers flare and Tom brutally murders Dickie (The violence here is disturbing, realistic and bloody, so be ye warned.) After cuddling with Dickie's bloody body, Tom disposes of the corpse and sinks the small boat. He makes his way back to the hotel where the desk clerk mistakes him for Dickie Greenleaf... It is at this point Tom moves from being obsessed with Dickie's life to deciding to become Dickie Greenleaf. This of course works until people begin noticing that the real Dickie is missing. Soon Tom Ripley has assumed both personalities, playing them off each other to keep Dickie alive and Tom out of trouble. There is a relationship here that I think holds the key to the film. While Tom is in the midst of this dual personality he falls in love, as Tom, with another gay man named Peter. He asks Tom how someone could live a normal life with the guilt of killing someone. Tom's answer is that he just locks up the bad thoughts and feelings in a dark place in his mind and he never goes inside. He adds, "If you really think about it, anything can make sense or seem reasonable in your own mind." Tom longs to let Peter into these dark places so that Peter can love him for who he really is, but he never confesses and never confides; he knows if Peter knew the truth he would reject him. Tom is always watching and listening, trying to perceive ways he can manipulate people into doing and being what he wants. What makes Tom dangerous is that he lacks whatever moral code that keeps most people from nefarious behaviour. His ultimate goal seems to be happiness, yet in the film he is never able to achieve it. He wants to be with Dickie but when that is no longer possible, he turns to murder to protect his identity. He doesn't plan to kill Dickie and take over his life; it just seems like a natural next step. In many ways we begin to cheer Tom on; we want him to get away with it. Shouldn't we be wanting him to get caught? As with Hitchcock's classic "Psycho", we are forced to identify with the villain; we interpret events from his perspective, and have only his point of view to guide us. We rationalize that Dickie attacked Tom first, and things begin to make sense in our own mind. The film explores the dark places that we hold inside, the thoughts and memories we have that make us hate ourselves. At one time or another, everyone longs to be someone they're not, to lead a life that is glamorously unlike our own. The film makes us squirm as we are caught in the mind of Tom Ripley. We too have dark places that we never visit and never let anyone see. We want Tom to escape these places just as we long to escape them. But it doesn't work that way. No matter how we delude ourselves or who we try to be, the dark places catch up with us and we end up "murdering" those closest to us. But what remedy is there? The movie fails to provide us with one; indeed, the film's bleak worldview seems to suggest that their is no hope for such people, that the dark places inside us are doomed to stay sealed and impregnable. As Christians, however, we know that these places are accessible to God, that there is hope and forgiveness, the possibility of redemption and a new life far better than that wished for by Tom Ripley.
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