Post by klep on Sept 17, 2018 6:52:51 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/17: The Talented Mr. Ripley
CON-ARTIST WEEK!
Note: This week's essay was contributed by Joey Lee (@movieequations on Twitter)
Tom Ripley is one of the most complex villains to grace our screens and Matt Damon is far from the only interpretation. But one thing Damon does well is to seduce the audience with his nice guy likeability so we don't realize what a monster he is until the very end, even though he's already killed two other people already, tries to kill another, and eventually kills his third.
The first thing we learn about Tom Ripley is that he's not really Tom Ripley at all. His friend is Tom Ripley and he's borrowed his friend's Princeton jacket for this piano gig and parlays that into going after a rich patron's spoiled son, Dickie Greenleaf, who's flouncing around Europe. Somehow over the next two hours, enough characters will call him Tom Ripley that we'll entirely forget that's actually not his name and that we were told from the start that this man is an imposter. The Talented Mr. Ripley pretends to sneak up on you, but it shows you its hand from the beginning. That feeling at the end, that you feel that you don't really know this Tom Ripley is true. You don't. The real Tom Ripley isn't even in this entire movie.
At first, it's not clear who Tom loves most: Gwyneth Paltrow's Marge, Jude Law's Dickie, or their lifestyle. The Talented Mr. Ripley explores the blurred lines of being in love with someone and wanting to become someone. I first met Jude Law through this role as Dickie Greenleaf and I think a lot of other people did too. He's not my type, but he's so gregarious, charismatic, and tan here; a literal golden boy. Anyone would be attracted to him, despite Dickie's wandering gaze. Marge warns Tom about that, making it clear that Dickie treated his friends like short lived love affairs, whether they were sexual or not.
When Tom kills Dickie in the boat after Dickie rebuffs Tom so, well, dickishly, it's both a crime of passion and Dickie revealing his callous hateful side. The audience is looking at this through Tom's heartbroken perspective. It's not great, but we understand. And now Tom gets a shot with his other love: Dickie's lifestyle.
That is until Dickie's old friend Freddie, played vividly by Phillip Seymor Hoffman, comes sniffing around looking for Dickie. Freddie's like the biggest dick you knew in college who never grew out of being too loud and too drunk. He comes after Tom, figuring out that it's not quite right that Dickie disappeared even in his intoxication and Tom bonks him on the head with the head of a statue. But Freddie was so annoying. We all know Freddies and have wanted to kill them. Plus he was threatening Tom's relationship with Dickie's lifestyle.
The audience really begins to turn on Tom when he attempts (and fails) to kill Marge. Marge is a very likeable character (Gwyneth was hot off Shakespeare in Love and not the cultural punching bag she is today). It's also very unsettling to see Tom Ripley do such a spot on impression of Dickie Greenleaf. Tom Ripley as Dickie mingles with Cate Blanchett's Meredith Logue and her friends.
Luckily, Marge escapes, because they're interrupted by a very nice, handsome gay man named Peter Smith-Kingsley played by Jack Davenport. Ripley gets on a boat so he can sail away and get away with it all. I longed for an alternate timeline in which Tom Ripley is ready for this relationship with this sweet man. Unfortunately Ripley runs into Meredith who knows him as Dickie. He asks Meredith if she's with anyone and she says she is with family, resigning him to kill his romantic future and chance at a normal life.
Tom Ripley and Peter cuddling in their cabin. The camera pans around their room so you're focused on their audio and can't really see them. You just hear Peter's haunting monologue and fill in the visual details: "Good things about Mr. Ripley? Could take some time. Tom is talented. Tom is tender... Tom is beautiful... Tom is a mystery. Tom is not a nobody. Tom has secrets he doesn't want to tell me, and I wish he would. Tom has nightmares. That's not a good thing. Tom has someone to love him. That is a good thing. Tom is crushing me. Tom is crushing me... Tom, you're crushing me!" I always found it apt that Tom started killing Peter after Peter said Tom had someone to love him. Tom has proved Peter's statement false by taking away the one who loves him. With that final third murder, the audience knows better than to trust Tom Ripley anymore. After all, we don't even know this guy. He's no more Tom Ripley than he is Dickie Greenleaf.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/24: Cabaret (1972)
MUSICALS WEEK!
For musicals week we'll be watching Bob Fosse's Cabaret! Starring Liza Minnelli, Fosse's adaptation of the stage play gave him a needed hit and eventually won a grand total of eight Oscars - still the record for a film that did not also win Best Picture. Join us next week for our discussion; Cabaret is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
The NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST is taking a break due to TIFF.
CON-ARTIST WEEK!
Note: This week's essay was contributed by Joey Lee (@movieequations on Twitter)
Tom Ripley is one of the most complex villains to grace our screens and Matt Damon is far from the only interpretation. But one thing Damon does well is to seduce the audience with his nice guy likeability so we don't realize what a monster he is until the very end, even though he's already killed two other people already, tries to kill another, and eventually kills his third.
The first thing we learn about Tom Ripley is that he's not really Tom Ripley at all. His friend is Tom Ripley and he's borrowed his friend's Princeton jacket for this piano gig and parlays that into going after a rich patron's spoiled son, Dickie Greenleaf, who's flouncing around Europe. Somehow over the next two hours, enough characters will call him Tom Ripley that we'll entirely forget that's actually not his name and that we were told from the start that this man is an imposter. The Talented Mr. Ripley pretends to sneak up on you, but it shows you its hand from the beginning. That feeling at the end, that you feel that you don't really know this Tom Ripley is true. You don't. The real Tom Ripley isn't even in this entire movie.
At first, it's not clear who Tom loves most: Gwyneth Paltrow's Marge, Jude Law's Dickie, or their lifestyle. The Talented Mr. Ripley explores the blurred lines of being in love with someone and wanting to become someone. I first met Jude Law through this role as Dickie Greenleaf and I think a lot of other people did too. He's not my type, but he's so gregarious, charismatic, and tan here; a literal golden boy. Anyone would be attracted to him, despite Dickie's wandering gaze. Marge warns Tom about that, making it clear that Dickie treated his friends like short lived love affairs, whether they were sexual or not.
When Tom kills Dickie in the boat after Dickie rebuffs Tom so, well, dickishly, it's both a crime of passion and Dickie revealing his callous hateful side. The audience is looking at this through Tom's heartbroken perspective. It's not great, but we understand. And now Tom gets a shot with his other love: Dickie's lifestyle.
That is until Dickie's old friend Freddie, played vividly by Phillip Seymor Hoffman, comes sniffing around looking for Dickie. Freddie's like the biggest dick you knew in college who never grew out of being too loud and too drunk. He comes after Tom, figuring out that it's not quite right that Dickie disappeared even in his intoxication and Tom bonks him on the head with the head of a statue. But Freddie was so annoying. We all know Freddies and have wanted to kill them. Plus he was threatening Tom's relationship with Dickie's lifestyle.
The audience really begins to turn on Tom when he attempts (and fails) to kill Marge. Marge is a very likeable character (Gwyneth was hot off Shakespeare in Love and not the cultural punching bag she is today). It's also very unsettling to see Tom Ripley do such a spot on impression of Dickie Greenleaf. Tom Ripley as Dickie mingles with Cate Blanchett's Meredith Logue and her friends.
Luckily, Marge escapes, because they're interrupted by a very nice, handsome gay man named Peter Smith-Kingsley played by Jack Davenport. Ripley gets on a boat so he can sail away and get away with it all. I longed for an alternate timeline in which Tom Ripley is ready for this relationship with this sweet man. Unfortunately Ripley runs into Meredith who knows him as Dickie. He asks Meredith if she's with anyone and she says she is with family, resigning him to kill his romantic future and chance at a normal life.
Tom Ripley and Peter cuddling in their cabin. The camera pans around their room so you're focused on their audio and can't really see them. You just hear Peter's haunting monologue and fill in the visual details: "Good things about Mr. Ripley? Could take some time. Tom is talented. Tom is tender... Tom is beautiful... Tom is a mystery. Tom is not a nobody. Tom has secrets he doesn't want to tell me, and I wish he would. Tom has nightmares. That's not a good thing. Tom has someone to love him. That is a good thing. Tom is crushing me. Tom is crushing me... Tom, you're crushing me!" I always found it apt that Tom started killing Peter after Peter said Tom had someone to love him. Tom has proved Peter's statement false by taking away the one who loves him. With that final third murder, the audience knows better than to trust Tom Ripley anymore. After all, we don't even know this guy. He's no more Tom Ripley than he is Dickie Greenleaf.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/24: Cabaret (1972)
MUSICALS WEEK!
For musicals week we'll be watching Bob Fosse's Cabaret! Starring Liza Minnelli, Fosse's adaptation of the stage play gave him a needed hit and eventually won a grand total of eight Oscars - still the record for a film that did not also win Best Picture. Join us next week for our discussion; Cabaret is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
The NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST is taking a break due to TIFF.