literary adaptations is Anthony Minghella. Already a famous playwright in
Great-Britain (he hails from the Isle of Wight but has Italian parentage) before
becoming an oscar-winning filmmaker, he has by now become quite famous
for his cinematic adaptations of novels. The English Patient is a good example,
being nominated eleven times and being awarded nine Oscar, but since I have
not yet read Michael Ondaantje's novel, I would like to discuss the film he made
after that: The Talented Mr Ripley, based on the novel of the same name by
the late Patricia Highsmith.
>>read my review of the book
>>read my review of the film
Before Minghella's attempt, the story had already been filmed in 1960 as
'Purple Noon', with Alain Delon as Ripley, and another Ripley novel ('Ripley's
Game') had been turned into a film by Wim Wenders ('The American Friend',
1977) with Dennis Hopper as Tom Ripley. 'Ripley's Game' has been remade
last year, with John Malkovich as Mr Ripley, while newcomer Barry Pepper will
be the fifth actor to portray Ripley in Roger Spottiswoode's forthcoming 'White
on White', an adaptation of 'Ripley under Ground'. While it is clear that Ripley is
an intruiging personage, it has with it the difficulty that it asks of the reader/
viewer to want to sympathise with a criminal, or at least be interested in what he
does. Ripley is one of the few characters that is on the bad side but is at the
same time the protagonist. Minghella does a good job of not trying to glorify
Ripley's villainy but to show him as someone very miserable who, in a fit of
rage, kills someone and only later consciencely decides to become this person.
The only problem is: if you have murdered someone and you do not want to
admit it, the easiest way of covering everything up is with murdering those who
are about to discover.
While Highsmith shows us Ripley in the United States, before his travels to
Europe, already engaged in petty theft, small-scale embezzlements and the
like, all that Minghella's Ripley is guilty of, is borrowing someone's jacket and
not wanting to admit it. Even more so than in Highsmith's novel, Minghella's
story shows us how a small lie can lead to big things, including murder. Tom
Ripley is a tragic figure who cannot admit when he does wrong and has to
suffer for it; he suffers so much he wants to be somebody else and when he
has become somebody else... he is even more miserable than he was before.
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