Aging Disgracefully

So, with that in mind, maybe I'll discuss both of these recent 'Ripley' films, beginning with this review of The Talented Mr. Ripley, which stars Matt Damon as a young Tom Ripley still coming into his own in terms of his sense of himself and his capabilities. The film opens with a young Ripley, bereft of any real prospects but already the brilliant improviser, giving a rooftop piano concert in the place of an injured friend (who does have prospects, as well as entree into the upper crust 1950s Manhattan society attending the concert). By an absurd misunderstanding, Tom is able to ingratiate himself with the Greenleafs, a WASPY, New York-Old Money kind of couple. Of course, Tom is quick enough to recognize and capitalize upon that misunderstanding. The next day, Mr. Greenleaf proposes that Tom travel to Italy to track down and return with his wayward son, Dickie (Jude Law). Tom agrees and is off to Italy, where he quickly establishes a friendship with Dickie and his fiancee Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow), and other members of their social set, including Freddy (Philipp Seymour Hoffman).

Dickie is one of those Golden Boys who draws people in with his own brilliant sunlight. He has money, looks, a sort of seductivity and charisma, and then there's the beautiful life in the Italy of the late Fifties to which he seems an inevitable part, at least if you were a super-priveleged American expat twenty-something of the time who wished to take in Italy while avoiding all of the unpleasantries of interaction with actual Italians (you see, they preferred the idea of Italy). Most of all, Tom wishes that he could have the possibilities afforded by Dickie's life, or rather his station in life. On the other hand, from very early on, one senses a certain degree of tension for Tom: Dickie, played brilliantly by Law, is, beneath his flawless gold and bronze exterior a loathsome, self-absorbed and spoiled misanthrope. In fact, Dickie's nasty judgementalism may be part of his appeal: people are desperate to secure the approval of this beautiful narcissist. And Marge is really a gold digger (how else could she so easily excuse Dickie's nasty character, which she cannot deny?).

Interestingly, music becomes a source of tension: Dickie is wild for jazz, but Tom is only feigning interest to keep Dickie's favor. This becomes more difficult with the arrival of Freddy, a man who lives on a steady diet of good wine, good times and Jazz, and immediately senses that which Dickie and Marge have failed to pick up on: Tom does not belong in their world. Not because he doesn't have their brains (he's smarter than any of them), looks (Hoffman versus Damon is a no brainer), talent (for instance, Dickie butchers the jazz Sax and Freddie buys records, but otherwise neither has anything approaching Tom's skill with the piano), etc. What Tom lacks is the easy self-assurance that growing up with true priviledge provides. These people are the ultimate elitists: as with being famous for being famous, the are elite simply for being elite. Thus begins the slow unraveling of Tom's relationship with Dickie, and with it his dream of living in Dickie's orbit.

I won't give away more of the film. First of all, it becomes too complicated to track. But, second, it is also a suspense of the finest order, and thus to say more would be a crime. The Talented Mr. Ripley is basically about the dream of inhabiting someone else's life, a dark instinct that I think many of us have felt at one time or another. Tom is an absolute sociopath who is so comfortable with deception that lies are actually easier for him to manage than the truth. And yet, throughout the film, when we feel heightened anxiety or anticipation, it is with the idea that Tom might be caught. As bad as he is, we can identify with him: a man of certain talents and virtues (whatever his flaws) locked out of a world handed on a silver platter to the wholly undeserving likes of Dickie. Certainly he is smarter, more aware of others and far more artistically and culturally savvy than the boorish Dickie and his crowd. Thus begins a pattern that I think traces out through the saga of Ripley: Ripley is our anti-hero Hero because he speaks to our darkest resentments, needs, urges and capabilities.

Italy is very much a character in the film. The backdrop it provides very effectively helps to set the mood. The early scenes on the sun drenched Amalfi coast are practically set in the hue of Dickie, and his seductive power becomes very believable in that warming light. In later scenes, as the action moves north, one senses a progressive darkening of the mood that the scenery underscores well.

Matt Damon was a perfect choice for Tom. He approaches every moment with a sort of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed boy-next-door kind of freshness and eagerness that somehow served instead to very effectively highlight his underlying evil (I found him a far more convincing sociopath than Anthony Hopkin's Lechter). I also found very convincing the notion that this is a young Ripley, still uncertain of and discovering his skills and capabilities. Jude Law is tremendous, and effectively pulls off an astonishing maneuver: from our vantage point Dickie's severe character flaws are so unavoidable that we aren't seduced by him, and yet Law convinces us that others, in his more immediate orbit in the film, would be. Everyone revolves around Dickie, we believe it, and that provides us with some genuine sympathy for the resentment that Tom probably feels regarding the unjustness of their relative stations in life. And his deception of and violence toward those in Dickie's circle also seems well deserved (at one point, a rich heiress explains to Tom "I'm a rich kid who hates money"). And Hoffman (no surprise here: Hoffman is one of the most underrated actors on the scene today) hits exactly the right note: he simultaneously worships Dickie (imparting a certain insecurity to Freddy) but otherwise shares his supreme sense of assurance and entitlement. And his unease with Ripley is from the outset subtle but clear.

This is a great, if unsettling, film.