The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

- I kind of wish that I hadn't waited quite so long to see this movie; I read the book a few years after the movie was originally released but it has probably been about 15 years since I read it at this point and don't recall many of the details; in other words I'm not sure how faithful the movie was to the book
- On the whole my impression is that the movie had about the same tone as the book; Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is a dark character and he gets away with things; the movie provided a taste of what Ripley goes through as he murders and impersonates other people, notably Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law); for a moment towards the end it felt like the focus shifted towards Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) and her suspicions about Tom; in the end it felt like Ripley was almost superhuman and unstoppable, I have no recollection of that from the book
- It felt a bit like two movies in one; the first hour leads up to the murder of Dickie and built the relationship between the two men; the last hour and twenty minutes felt a bit ocer stuffed, considering how much was packed into them; the story might work better as a one season 6 to 10 hour tv series
- I wasn't completely sold on Ripley's ability to impersonate Dickie; the story is set in the 1950s, I think, and security wasn't then what it is today but still for the most part I didn't really notice a difference in the mannerisms of Ripley when he was pretending to be Dickie as opposed to playing himself
- the cinematography was gorgeous; most of the movie took place in Italy; my recollection is that a heavier portion of the story took place in Venice in the book than in the movie but as I said before it has been about 15 years since I read the book
- the music was wonderful; I especially liked the scenes in the jazz clubs but all around the music was very evocative and helped to set the mood
- I felt that the performances were all good or better than just good; I liked how the first hour slowly unfolded and am not a big fan of how the storytelling shifts in the second half; on the whole not bad but not great either, except for the music and cinematography, of course