Rated M.
Tom Ripley (Damon) is an average young New Yorker making ends
meet as a toilet attendant in a plush hotel and playing classical piano at rich peoples'
parties.
It's at one of these parties he meets a mega-rich shipbuilder
who believes, by a quirk of fate, that Tom attended the same college as his own son. This
leads to a proposition whereby Tom is paid $1000 plus expenses to go to Italy and convince
the tycoon's playboy son to come home. Being the 1950s when $1000 was worth something and,
with nothing better to do, Tom accepts and sails, First Class, on the Queen Mary for the
adventure of a lifetime.
Dickie Greenleaf (Law) is a very handsome ladies man living it
up on the Mediterranean with spunkette squeeze, Marge Sherwood (Paltrow). With his daddy's
miserable allowance (far more than Tom could ever hope to earn) to keep them tanned and
happy in paradise, life is just a beach (and a yacht and a ski resort for Christmas).
Dickie, being the extremely popular type, embarrassingly admits
to not remembering Tom when they "chanced" to meet on the beach one fine day.
But of course, chance had nothing to do with it.
Thus Tom inveigles his way into the Greenleaf home and is
welcomed. This curious young chap from home adds a spark to the household.
Tom eventually admits the elder Greenleaf's plan to Dickie and
between the pair they hatch a cunning plan to milk some extra cash from the old man.
One lie leads to another and each lie a little bigger than the
last until the whole thing gets completely out of hand.
This is the latest movie to come to us from the director of The
English Patient and as you would expect, it is very stylishly filmed and choreographed.
The story is very clever too with more than one unexpected twist along the way.
Unfortunately it is rather slow in the telling. But by the end of its two-hour forty-odd
minutes I did find myself wanting just a little bit more. I guess I was sucked in.