The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Matt Damon and Jude Law star in Anthony Minghella’s 1999 adaptation of lesbian author Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” Today’s post was selected/written by QCA guest writer João Delfim (@circus_of_my_mind on Instagram).
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY
1999. USA.
Director: Anthony Minghella
Screenplay: Anthony Minghella
Based on: “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1955) by Patricia Highsmith
Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Davenport, James Rebhorn, Sergio Rubini & Philip Baker Hall
Mysterious, yearning, secretive, sad, lonely, troubled, confused, loving, musical, gifted, intelligent, beautiful, tender, sensitive, haunted, and passionate. Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley begins with a deluge of adjectives spilling onto the screen, searching for the best word to describe its protagonist before settling on 'talented'. As well as hinting at its complexity, this introduction is proof of this adaptation’s keen intelligence, acknowledging that the best characters are too complex to be summed up in a single word.
Gasping for air between the lines of Ripley’s tale of descent into criminality, the quest for identity is this narrative’s irrevocable theme. From the start, we're led to understand that Tom’s identity struggle comes from social status; though, in reality, more than stature or fortune, I believe that Ripley’s search is within.
That said, this movie’s ultimate triumph is its homoerotic subtext. There is no denying the homoeroticism of every remarkably nuanced and charged interaction between Ripley and Dickie. Minghella makes its star’s queerness speak louder than words, showing him asking to join Dickie in the bathtub — in the feature’s most sumptuous scene — and even including a male lover in its third act. On top of that, the director films male bodies as pure astonishing spectacle, as if we were gazing at them through Ripley’s amorous eye. On the set of a Fellinian Italian-paradise, Tom’s coming-of-(gay)ge is as sensual as it is tumultuous, filling the viewer with compassion for the closeted character.
All in all, while Patricia Highsmith's novel portrays Ripley as a villain, he gets a more vulnerable interpretation from Minghella, making him an important vector for a generation’s sexual awakening. Though we’ve gone on to new representations of Ripley’s sexuality, notably in Netflix’s 'Ripley', Matt Damon’s baroque interpretation of the beloved anti-hero remains a groundbreaking portrayal of a complex gay protagonist in a Hollywood production in the late nineties.
THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY is streaming on Paramount+ (USA/UK) and Netflix (UK/Australia), for rent/purchase through AppleTV & Amazon, and also available on DVD/Blu-ray
