Chinmayee Manjunath

I am obsessed with The Talented Mr Ripley.

I rented the DVD so often from my neighbourhood rental place that when the store was shutting down, the owner gifted it to me, along with all the seasons of Sex And The City. I was nearly crippled with happiness and then realised, with some horror, when I looked at the roster cards inside that most of those DVDs had spent their entire lives with me in any case so why wouldn’t that man just give them to me?

But. Can we please talk about the perfection that is this movie? (It is based on an excellent, excellent book by Patricia Highsmith, by the way. And if you are buying it, I would also recommend getting the sequel-of-sorts, Ripley Under Ground.)

I know Anthony Minghella is better known for The English Patient (I loathe that film, love the book because – Michael Ondaatje) but I believe he brought his best to Ripley.

Everything from the sets to the costumes is achingly good. The soundtrack is brilliant. Each actor – Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Phillip Seymour Hoffman – is brilliant. Each character in the movie is worth a book on its own.

I have a whole list of movies I am in love with and I won’t bore you with them, but The Talented Mr Ripley is special.

It tells a story not told often enough – of the hidden demons in everyone; of falling in love with people who cannot, will not love you back; who cannot help who they are and who they become; of desire, lust and longing; of people letting one another down, hiding their past and worrying about their future; of the hidden, troubled aspects of love, friendship and loyalty.

The movie unfolds with exquisite grace, emotion and restraint, across Italy, with impeccably-dressed people’s lives unravelling in impossibly stunning homes.

If you have or have not seen it, love it or don’t, I’d highly recommend (re)watching The Talented Mr Ripley when you long for an escape and faultless art. To my mind, this 1999 release was the perfect fin de siecle film. Filled with beauty, darkness and things left unsaid and undone.