MovieChat Forums > The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Discussion > Was Great Until...

Was Great Until...

posted 11 years ago by Melissaslist
24 replies | jump to latest

I saw this way back when the theater and loved the first half. Or maybe the first quarter. More specifically up until Dicky was killed. He imho was the best part of the movie. Jude Law was gorgeous and flawless as the rich playboy spending his fathers money living it up in Italy.

Funny because Dicky accused Tom of being "quite boring" and went on and on with this until Tom snapped and killed him. But as soon as Dicky was gone the movie itself became pretty boring and pretty absurd too.

Tom was definitely clever and a master of deceit. I found it interesting up until Freddy's murder when Freddy was completely onto Tom. After this the police investigation, Dicky's dad, Marge and all the manipulations Tom did to cover his tracks and his ass just became more and more ridiculous. Insult to injury was that Marge FINALLY upon seeing Tom with Dicky's ring hallelujah put two and two together but then when she TRIED in vain to tell Dicky's dad about what was really happening he just chalked it up to her being a hysterical female and completely lacked any credibility. This upon hearing about the potential murder of his son by Tom and he just refused to even consider this possibility.

but I suppose it comes back to the shear lunacy that some very wealthy businessman would hire a kid he doesn't know to fetch his son from Europe to bring him back to the states and fund with all kinds of money and then at the very end give him Dicky's trust fund. I suppose at the end of this movie Tom really HAD become Dicky. His fantasy was to live Dicky's life and had to do everything within his power to destroy anything or anyone who would prevent this from going forward.

I still think the second half of this movie was boring and disappointing.

[–] Quicksilver1900 9 years ago

Well, the second half of the film included the luminously beautiful character Peter Kingsley-Smith.

"I am always happy to engage in POLITE discourse."

[–] moviefool09 9 years ago

The first half of the film with Jude and later with Hoffman is amazing, but I actually found the tension increasing when it was just Damon left, with only his wits and quick-thinking to protect him. It was kind of fascinating watching him try to maintain this bizarre charade....showing Damon as really a terrific actor in his own right.

It's one of the only movies that I feel obliged to watch to the end, when coming across it on cable.

"The future is tape, videotape, and NOT film?"

[–] kya1 9 years ago

but I suppose it comes back to the shear lunacy that some very wealthy businessman would hire a kid he doesn't know to fetch his son from Europe to bring him back to the states and fund with all kinds of money and then at the very end give him Dicky's trust fund.

I have to say, that really did stretch the suspension of disbelief somewhat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAIJ3Rh5Qxs

[–] daveyh (641) 2 years ago

First time I watched it I thought this. On repeat viewings I enjoy both aspects of the film equally.
I think, first time, the film's sudden change of gear is jarring. On future viewings, I know what to expect, and, if anything, it just adds more to the earlier scenes with Jude Law, especially the increasing strain in their friendship after Rome.

Unless they'd already read the book, most viewers wouldn't know what direction the plot would be going in. I certainly didn't. Given that the film's artwork prominently features Jude Law (with Gwynneth Paltrow), I assumed the movie would simply be about Matt Damon having an extended holiday in Italy with them, more of a character study than anything else, and the first third or more of the movie would only serve to reaffirm that. So killing off the most magnetic character when they do is absolutely shocking on first look.
It's possibly the greatest hoodwinking of the viewer since Janet Lee got in the shower.

Psycho is rightly such a well know film that the identity of the real lead character, Janet Lee's fate and the final twist were all common knowledge before I ever watched it. And how I wish I didn't know because experiencing all those reveals would have been mind blowing. Ripley is possibly the nearest I'll ever get to that experience.

[–] Melton (5618) 6 months ago

Hard disagree. The second half is superb, and I love how the film shifts gear, Dusk Till Dawn style, from a drama about a con-man into a borderline horror serial killer thriller (ingeniously with the killer as the protagonist 🙃)