Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.
Acting
Jude Law's Dickie is magnetic vanity incarnate; Damon's Tom dissolves before your eyes.
Cinematography
Italy shot like fever dream—every frame dripping with desire and rot.
Writing
Minghella weaponizes ambiguity; you catch yourself rooting for a monster.
Director
Anthony Minghella
Matt Damon
Tom Ripley
Gwyneth Paltrow
Marge Sherwood
Jude Law
Dickie Greenleaf
Cate Blanchett
Meredith Logue
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Freddie Miles
Jack Davenport
Peter Smith-Kingsley
James Rebhorn
Herbert Greenleaf
Sergio Rubini
Inspector Roverini
Philip Baker Hall
Alvin MacCarron
Celia Weston
Aunt Joan
Fiorello
Fausto
Stefania Rocca
Silvana
Ivano Marescotti
Colonnello Verrecchia
Anna Longhi
Signora Buffi
Alessandro Fabrizi
Sergeant Baggio
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Matt Damon learned piano and saxophone for the role; that panic-sweat in the club scene? Real.
The 1955 novel was banned for its 'degenerate' themes; Minghella's 1999 adaptation made Tom's queerness legible but still pathologized, sparking debate about whether the film queers the villain or villainizes the queer.
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