‘Ripley’ review: A lustrous depiction of creeping evil

Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr Ripley introduced a serial grifter-murderer who was so beguiling despite his unabashed amorality that the details of how he committed his crimes did not matter, nor was it terribly egregious that he got away each time. Unsurprisingly, a new adaptation of Highsmith’s novel places Ripley’s mesmerising talent for survival at the front and centre of the narrative.

Ripley is a struggling confidence trickster who lands the gig of a lifetime: he has to travel to Italy to persuade shipping company scion Dickie Greenleaf to give up his never-ending vacation and return to his family in America.

Dickie is entitled, laidback and casually cruel in the way that only the very rich can be. Tom is enchanted, and wants to become Dickie in every respect and at any cost.

Each of the two official adaptations of The Talented Mr Ripley gets something right about the literary source. Rene Clement’s gorgeous Purple Noon (1960) scores in the casting of iconic French actor Alain Delon as the enigmatic, contemptuous Ripley. Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), starring Matt Damon as an emotionally vulnerable Ripley, finds the perfect match between Jude Law and the vain and shallow Dickie.

Although Steven Zaillian’s Netflix series Ripley is a mostly faithful adaptation, its biggest punt is the casting…

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