Word: ripleyisms
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...writing Ripley, Highsmith had two bolts of brilliance. The first was to let the bad guy get away with his crimes. All mystery writers are murderers; they get into the mind, under the skin, of a killer, if only to determine how the foul deed can be accomplished. Then, typically, they bring in a detective to unravel the plot and cuff the culprit. Highsmith simply ditched the civilized pretense of justice avenged. She tore the final, comeuppance chapter out of Ripley's story, left him giddy with triumph--and let him flourish in four more books. The snake, having shed...
Minghella does not let Ripley off that easily. He devises two characters who fall for the killer and get in his way: a sweet, rich buttinsky (Blanchett) and a gentle homosexual (Davenport). Can he kiss them, or kiss them off, without bumping them off? We won't tell, but we will say that Tom has second thoughts about his addiction to killing the things he loves. The film lets Tom off the hook for the murders of Dickie and Freddie. Then it creates a new hook and leaves you wondering if Ripley will hang from...
...trying to honor the book, which is about a man who commits murder and isn't caught," Minghella says. "But I also wanted to investigate what that actually means. At the end of the film, Ripley is imprisoned by the consequences of his own action. There's a difference between public accountability and private justice. He appears to have gotten away; he seems to get away with everything. In a way he's sentenced to freedom. It's painful to have this talent for escape, for being able to improvise one's way out of any situation. To Ripley...
Highsmith's second coup was Ripley himself--a fastidious fellow of refined if acquired tastes who is utterly unimpeded by conscience. Tom is a sportsman. "Risks were what made the whole thing fun," he muses. His lack of guilt or shame makes Tom a blithe, resourceful fellow, totally at ease with the man he's become...
Minghella's Ripley is different, less sure of himself, more human, and thus reduced in stature. He lies to Dickie's father when he says he went to Princeton with the boy. He believes not in inspired improvisation, as the book's Ripley does, but in studying hard. In the movie, Tom's plotting has the calculation of a Bach fugue; Dickie's avocation is playing jazz saxophone instead of painting, and he loves the dangerous freedom of Chet Baker and Charlie Parker. As played by Law, Dickie oozes a reckless sensuality, turning the beam on and off at will...