Ripley's Game
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Movie Reviews of Ripley's Game
Movie Review: "Why did you do that....?"
Summary: 5 Stars
"Ripley's Game" is terrifying, humorous, and possesses an infectious cancer that makes you sympathize deeply with John Malkovich's older Tom Ripley, a sociopathic aesthete who seems to appreciate the finest forms of art--classical music, painting, Italian symphonies--and then in the same hour garrote four people on a subway train with only one concern: whether or not his expensive Brazilian watch has broken.
In this film, Ripley has retired to a villa in Italy with a beautiful girlfriend he plans to marry. At times Malkovich clearly steps out of sociopathic form to add a little warmth to Ripley's charming and repulsive character: he hangs on every word she says, buys her a fabulous organ from the old country, and bakes her the finest bread he can find. All the while he is fixated on one unfortunate man, a middle-aged picture framer dying of cancer, who made the mistake of insulting Ripley at a dinner party while he was standing behind him. Jonathan Trevanny is the everyman, unremarkable except for his growing misfortune, with a newborn child and a loving wife adding to his well founded financial existential anxieties.
Ripley's thug friend Reeves (played with impeccable slime by Ray Winstone) hires Trevanny for the assassination of a Russian drugdealer.
Despite his obvious moral tribulations about the matter, he actually does it: when Ripley discovers this, he is dumbfounded. One gets the chilling impression that somehow, in some way, Ripley knew he was capable of it.
The pay off is 50,000 dollars and this enables Jonathan to ensure a future for his child.
Reeves then propositions Jonathan to garrote a Balkan mob boss on a train, but Ripley, for mysterious reasons, will not allow Jonathan to be used in this way. First of all he is incapable of it, and there also seems to be a demented paternal quality to their relationship. Malkovich is perfect as this soulless and yet somehow affectionate robot of a man--he voice is calm, warm, possessing full knowledge that he is without a conscience and desperately wanting to know why.
At one point he tells Jonathan flatly: "When I was younger, about your age, it troubled me badly that I lacked what you're displaying now: a conscience. It no longer does. I'm not afraid of witnesses or people because I don't feel that anyone's watching. Nothing momentous just happened on this train. The world is not any lesser now that these men are gone. A little less noise, a little less harm, perhaps, that's all."
The ending of the film is a gesture of self sacrifice on the part of Jonathan which may or may not change Tom Ripley: the ending of this twisted and somehow hilarious film is actually upbeat in a way. Ripley is able, perhaps for the only time in his life, to appreciate or witness that most unusual of human behavior: selflessness. This is one of the most drop dead funny films I have ever seen: Malkovich is the wittiest and most carefree sociopath in the history of film, as far as I can see. His dialogue is priceless. Ennio Morricone's score is gorgeous and sets the mood very well. A must see!
Movie Review: Same Talent, Different Ripley
Summary: 5 Stars
"Ripley's Game" is the semi-sequel to Anthony Minghella's brilliant "The Talented Mr. Ripley." I want to say first and foremost, if you didn't like that film...Stay away from this one. Anyway, I call it a semi-sequel because there's no connection between either film besides the source novel by Patricia Highsmith. In Ripley's Game, Tom Ripley is much older now and living in Europe with a wife Louisa; But he's still up to his old tricks and he's still talented. The movie begins after Ripley has a disagreement with a man he's selling some drawings to; Ripley is dealing with a man named Reeves (Ray Winstone, 'Sexy Beast'), but what happens isn't even that important. Ripley makes it clear he doesn't want to see Reeves again which essentially sets the plot in motion. Three years later, Reeves returns and offers Ripley a large sum of money to kill a Russian guy. Ripley doesn't want to do it, however and suggests Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott, 'The Legend of Zorro'). Jonathan barely knows Ripley and has no idea that Ripley has just suggested his name as a potential hit man, but when Reeves offers Jonathan the money...He eventually agrees, due in part to the fact he was just diagnosed with leukemia. This movie eventually becomes Jonathan's movie for the most part. Every event in the movie is basically guided by Ripley, but his screen time isn't what you would think it would be. This film, for the record, is not better than The Talented Mr. Ripley. It's not as beautifully photographed, nor as entertaining. But, John Malkovich is the definitive Tom Ripley. Don't get me wrong, Matt Damon was amazing as Ripley...He captured the many layers of Ripley's personality, being both charming and murderous. Malkovich does the same thing, but Malkovich has the icy cool stare and way of speaking that makes him the embodiment of Ripley. Malkovich just has this way of saying his dialouge, which I might add is great. There's some lines that a lot of actors couldn't do, Malkovich thrives on them. "Be careful with that watch, because if it breaks I'll kill every person on this train". But besides Malkovich; Scott, who I hated in Zorro, is surprisingly effective as Jonathan; Winstone is great as Reeves...The whole cast is great. The movie is entertaining; I think the train/death scene with Malkovich and Scott was very fun to watch. As I said, there's no relation between either film. There's not even a scene where Ripley reminisces...Despite that, looking at this as both a sequel and stand alone film it works.
GRADE: A-
Movie Review: Sophisticated cold-bloodedness...
Summary: 5 Stars
Tom Ripley re-emerges once again after twenty years. His character has matured - he is a man of means and taste, living with a young and beautiful Italian harpsichordist in a lavish mansion, filled with classical art and tasteful objects -a man with a seething dark side, a willingness to remove anyone who would get in his way. There is a cold sophistication about this man, a man who on the surface, appears as if he has reached a stage in human development above the rest of us mortals. He reminds me of Hannibal Lecter - extremely intelligent, arrogant though displays a high level of refinement. One pierces this thin façade, however, and discovers not a man at all, but a monster.John Malkovich as Tom Ripley was perfect casting. Malkovich seemed to have an uncanny insight into this character. There's no overacting, a melodramatic portrayal of a conscienceless killer, but a subtle performance, which captured the irony and restrained evil of such a man. What makes the character of Ripley so chilling is that sophisticated cold-bloodedness', the fact that he doesn't have a conscience, and has been aware of this deficit in his personality since childhood. The character actually mentions this fact in the film, and said that when he discovered this deficit in himself, it troubled him. But this is how he gets along in the world, and it works for him.
One of Ripley's old colleagues looks him up in Italy to settle a past debt. The man wants someone killed, and needs a person outside the game to do the deed to maintain a safe distance. A neighbour of Ripley's made the mistake of insulting him in front of a group of people. This man is dieing of leukaemia and would be the perfect "innocent" to do the crime. Ripley, in his usual seductive and manipulative manner, sets it in motion, turning a dieing family man into a potential killer. How can a `normal' man learn to live with himself after committing a murder for hire? Can a man lose his conscience over time after committing a series of abominable acts? As Ripley says in the film, "You know its funny, after doing a terrible thing, you tend to forget about it in a few days."
This film is a well-made thriller with a believable and compelling performance by John Malkovich. The first instalment "The Talented Mr. Ripley" was indeed a good film in its own right, but this one, to my mind, surpasses it, in terms of style and performance.
Movie Review: Tom Ripley Is At It Again
Summary: 5 Stars
"Ripley's Game," a movie version of the Patricia Highsmith novel, like the "Talented Ripley" (the Matt Damon flick) takes considerable liberties with her text. George Malkovich does a fine job in the part of Tom Ripley, although I feel he's wrong, too effete, for the part. The beginning scene in Berlin, not from the book, is there to establish Tom's character as a murderer and a crook who does errands for a thief named Reeves (Ray Winstone).
In the movie Ripley's home is far too elaborate, too much like a palace rather than a country villa. A picture framer, Jonathan Trevanny, makes scurrilous remarks about Tom, and Tom decides to get back at him by setting him up through Reeves as an assassin. Trevanny goes along with the crime because he's dying of cancer and wants to take care of his wife and son after his death.
In the movie Tom's wife, Heloise, is his enabler as she is in four books of the series, but he didn't let in her in on his nefarious schemes the way he does in the movie.
The killing scene in the zoo in which Trevanny kills a Russian mob boss is very effective. The picture framer gets talked into a second killing, this time on a train, and Ripley, cool and brutal, true psychopath that he is, turns up to help him. The most powerful scene in the movie: multiple murders in a WC.
Ripley says, "I'm a creation, a gifted improviser. I don't have a conscience."
In the last part of the movie the mob bodyguards come after Ripley and Jonathan at Ripley's mansion, and the movie stays close to the book's plot.
Judging it as a movie apart from a novel adaptation, it is extremely effective with a brilliant conclusion in which Malkovich at his wife's harpsichord concert proves by his silences what a fine actor he is.
Dennis Hopper starred in "The American Friend," another version of this novel.
The American Friend
Movie Review: Superb Psychological Drama....Malkovich is the Devil Incarnate !!
Summary: 5 Stars
The highest praise I can give to any movie is that, while watching it, I begin to dread the fact that it will end. I found this story to be THAT enjoyable....and then some.
The lead character, Ripley, is presented as a well-aged version of the sociopathic con artist played by Matt Damon in "The Talented Mr. Ripley". As played by the inimitable John Malkovich, this older, wiser Ripley is infinitely more sophisticated, sly, treacherous, and fascinating. He lives in a wonderful Italian villa with a gorgeous wife/mistress who knows and embraces his true nature. When publicly insulted by a neighbor, played by Dougray Scott, he initiates a plot to gain revenge, ultimately turning the innocent man into a hired killer who is then tortured by his own conscience....a punishment that could never affect the consciousless, sociopathic Mr. Ripley.
Malkovich is a unique actor, never content to merely show up and speak his lines convincingly, he actually BECOMES the character...and every devilish smile, lick of the lips, flash of anger, etc. becomes an expressive action by the character, not by the actor. He is so completely suited to this role that it is impossible to envision anyone else playing the part.
The dialog is wonderful....complex, intellectually stimulating, and natural. Indeed, some of the comments on the nature (and absence) of conscience and guilt achieve the level of fine literature. Conversations are generally riveting, the humor is generally very dark, and the suspense reaches Hitchcockian levels. As the Scott character, who is dying of leukemia, sinks deeper and deeper into the depravity of his hapless plight, he actually begins to seek, rather than fear, death.
This is a very sophisticated, emotionally involving story that will appeal strongly to mature viewers. It never received the attention it deserved, and ranks among the best of the "undiscovered" movies. I give it my highest recommendation.