“From the moment it starts it will have you in its grips, and it won’t let go until it wants to.”

Yesterday I watched The Talented Mr. Ripley which itself stands as proof that there are movies that I have missed over the years that are fucking incredible. The Talented Mr. Ripley is a movie about Tom Ripley, a deeply troubled individual who is hired by a man to travel to Italy and bring back his son, Dickie Greenleaf. Things take a turn when Ripley, upon meeting Dickie, becomes infatuated with him to a degree that is close to lethal.

I’m going to level with you, motivated is not a word I would use to describe myself today. This makes it difficult to do anything creative (like write a movie review, for example), but that problem only compounds when the movie I’m reviewing is The Talented Mr. Ripley which is a such a perfect movie I don’t think any of my words will do it justice. But anyway, let’s forget about this pitty party and start in with the review. So to me, The Talented Mr. Ripley is a flawless movie. From the moment it started, I was positively transfixed. First of all, the direction is superb. The way that The Talented Mr. Ripley manages to feel like a traditional film, while also feeling very styilized at times is magnificent. And this is all accentuated by the wonderful editing in the film. Even from the opening credits you can tell that The Talented Mr. Ripley will be somethiung to behold. I also like how, much like the direction, the score manages to blend classic and contemporary music to create what is once again a very unique expereince. And finally the performances were so good, I can’t even begin to go into all of them. But there is one I will discuss a little later.

Really the main thing I loved about The Talented Mr. Ripley was the story. Now I loved it not only because it was super fucked up and extremely intense at times, but because of how interesting it was. The character of Tom Ripley might be one of the most intriguing characters in cinema history because when you meet him you assume he is a nornmal guy, but then every once in a while these moments will shine through that tell you that he is the farthest thing from it. This dude is so delusional that none of his actions have any real method. He just does what he feels he has to do, but no one but him understand why he has to do those things. And this is the prefromacne that really sold the movie for me: Matt Damon as Tom Ripley. You never know what is going on in his head, and that makes his every move gripping. Sure the story does slow down in a few parts, but I was always transfixed with Tom Ripley, wondering what would happen next. And that’s really what makes The Talented Mr. Ripley so special to me: nothing made sense. Usually in movies with demented main characters we would get a glimpse into why they are like that, or what they are planning; but with The Talented Mr. Ripley we got nothing of the sort. And isn’t that reflective of real life?

Overall The Talented Mr. Ripley is a movie that everyone should watch at least once. From the moment it starts it will have you in its grips, and it won’t let go until it wants to. Everything about this movie is perfect.

I give The Talented Mr. Ripley an A