Word: ripley
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...received an Academy Award in 1998 for the film Good Will Hunting and was nominated for another Oscar last year for his role in Steven Spielberg's World War II drama, Saving Private Ryan. His performance in The Talented Mr. Ripley this year was also widely praised...
After Titanic, DiCaprio could have done anything. The lead in The Talented Mr. Ripley: that sounded fitting. Instead, he crashed on The Beach. Whatever the new movie has going for it or against it, DiCaprio's choice of this unusual proj-ect--a contemplative action movie, an interior thriller--is true to the contours of his career so far. He wants to try new stuff, stretch his range, see how far he can go and take his fans with him. If it flops, and the next one (Martin Scorsese's The Gangs of New York) too, what's the worst...
...what's cool, they just follow the charts. By that rationale, Pokemon probably placed 6th in the Best Picture race.) So they nominate The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile and The Sixth Sense instead of the three real best pictures of the year--The Talented Mr. Ripley, Being John Malkovich and The End of the Affair (throw in Election or Toy Story 2 and I'd still be happy). To look edgy, they reluctantly toss in Spike Jonze for Best Director and omit Frank Darabont for The Green Mile even though the movie is nominated for Best Picture...
...feel I should take very little credit for that. It was funny because the decision to make the character Ripley a woman was made by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Gordon Carroll [producers], who bought Dan O'Bannon's script which was all male. They basically rewrote the script, and they were looking at it and thought, wouldn't it be great if the hero winds up being this girl you don't expect. They just kind of did that because they thought it would be a good plot surprise, it was written exactly like...
...someone who enjoyed The Talented Mr. Ripley, I point all this out in the spirit of constructive criticism--some notes, you might say, for the remake. Next time, the tension between Tom and Dickie could be over how hard you can hit the machine without causing it to tilt, or whether you get more lire to the dollar in Zurich or Trieste. Gwyneth would be nowhere in sight...