7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.3 |
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder
Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour HoffmanPsychological thriller | 100% |
Drama | 91% |
Period | 32% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
After winning the Best Director Oscar for The English Patient at age 43, Anthony Minghella only lived to direct three more films, dying of post-surgical complications in 2008. Two of the three, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003), were successful, though not without criticism. Minghella's final film, Breaking and Entering (2006), remains a mystery that no one could fathom. Over time, however, I believe that Ripley will emerge as Minghella's most accomplished work next to The English Patient. At its release, it suffered by comparison to French writer/director René Clément's Purple Noon, a taut and sleeker adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's original novel, starring Alain Delon as a smooth and deadly Tom Ripley. Minghella departed significantly from Highsmith's text, reconceiving Ripley, situating his story in a lush recreation of Italy in the late Fifties, and adding a new character whose role expanded during filming as Minghella watched Cate Blanchett bring his new creation to life. Both before and after the release of Ripley, Minghella was frank about what attracted him to Highsmith's con man. In Tom Ripley, Minghella saw elements of the childhood sense of exclusion he experienced growing up as the son of Italian immigrants who owned an ice cream factory on the Isle of Wight, a popular British resort destination. Minghella repeatedly spoke of both Ripley and his youthful self as people with their nose pressed up against the glass, peering at a life they ardently desired but could not have. What happens, Minghella asks, when a determined young man with a talent for deceit finds the door to that life suddenly flung open? How will he react? How far will he go to remain inside? In reorganizing Highsmith's plot around these themes, Minghella created a film that is difficult to categorize. In his commentary, he calls it "a strange mix of pathos and farce". Ripley was marketed as a thriller, and much of it plays like one. It's also the story of an elaborate con, where your sympathies vacillate between the con man and his victims. In a typical con film, the "mark" deserves to be swindled, usually through greed, but Ripley's victims are just living their lives, albeit somewhat carelessly. Are they to blame, or is Ripley—and does it matter? As Ripley says, everyone always makes sense to themselves. "No matter what you do, no matter how awful, no one ever thinks that they're a bad person." One could call Ripley a story about "identity theft", but not in the contemporary sense of impersonating someone to steal their money. Tom Ripley isn't interested in money per se; he's interested in the kind of person you can be when you don't have to worry about getting it. Unlike those who treat money as a measure of achievement, Ripley sees it as a means to acceptance, attention, an end to the invisibility that has plagued his existence. Or in Ripley's succinct formulation: "I always thought it would be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody."
The transfer used for this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray released by Warner under license with Paramount is different from that featured on the Region B Blu-ray released by Optimum Home Entertainment earlier this year. That transfer was framed at 1.85:1, while this one, consistent with Warner's usual practice, has been opened up slightly to 1.78:1. Minghella worked with his English Patient collaborator John Seale, who won an Oscar for that film's cinematography, and despite the challenging weather conditions in Italy (described by Minghella in his commentary), Seale delivered one of the most romantically colorful recreations of late Fifties Italy in modern film. The Blu-ray's palette delivers an impressive balance between the brightly saturated hues of the jazz clubs and the impassioned Roman night life and the more delicate hues of the gorgeous countryside in and around Mongibello (for which various locations were used). Consistent with the film's dreamy style, the texture is soft, but detail is plentiful, and the film grain is fine but natural. Blacks in night scenes or on the occasional tuxedo are solid, and contrast is never overstated to the point of washing out fine detail. The average bitrate of 25.95 is well within the acceptable range for an action film, which Ripley isn't, but I suspect that every bit was necessary for the magnificent locations. (Almost none of the film was shot on soundstages.)
The same sound team that won an Oscar for The English Patient oversaw Ripley, including the film's legendary editor, Walter Murch. Murch's touch can be heard in the many layers of tiny, almost subliminal sounds and the sonic overlap of scenes so that you begin to hear the next scene while the previous one is concluding. The Blu-ray's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 track reproduces the original theatrical mix with both authority and subtlety, whether it's the combination of wind, sea and singing during a religious ceremony on the beach, or the uproarious surroundings in a jazz club where Tom and Dickie get up on stage and perform together, or simply the waves rocking a boat during a fateful trip taken by two characters. Ripley's complex musical score is well served by the Blu-ray's track, which provides presence and wide dynamic range for the unusual blend of classical music, jazz and Gabriel Yared's original score which effectively shifts between the intense longing that drives Tom Ripley and the growing threat that his longing poses to those around him.
The extras have been ported over from Paramount's 2000 DVD of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but a few items did not survive the trip. Missing in action are the two music videos for "My Funny Valentine" and "Tu Vuo' Fa L'Americano". The same extras were included on the Region B Blu-ray released by Optimum Home Entertainment earlier this year.
Toward the end of Ripley, Tom offers a glimpse of what appears to be a soul, when he speaks of a dark basement where he hides away his past misdeeds, except that now he's met someone to whom he'd like to grant access, if only he could find a way. Unfortunately, that very person, through no fault of their own, will eventually become a threat to Tom and take up permanent residence in his dark basement. Was Tom telling the truth about himself, or was his tale of regret just another in his seemingly endless series of charades and false identities? The closing dialogue on the soundtrack suggests the former, but the final shots of Tom Ripley's expressionless face and empty eyes say otherwise. Ripley's greatest talent is to remain unknown. Highly recommended.
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