1. The Talented Mr Ripley
This review contains major spoilers for the 1999 film and 1955 novel, and minor spoilers for the 2024 Netflix adaptation.
I first came across Tom Ripley when I watched the 1999 film by Anthony Minghella, starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and a handful of other household names. Enchanted by Ripley's chameleon personality and identity, I set out to inspect the source material, picking up Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel while it was on sale at HMV. The initial similarities between the text and its adaptation are striking, yet as I read on I found more and more deviations.
An then I found out that Netflix had adapted the book again in 2024, with Andrew Scott as Ripley's face. At 48 (then 47) Scott was not who I had imagined at all, Ripley himself being in his mid-20's through the novel's progress.
I read on and put the show aside, not wanting any more distractions. Three versions of the same media would need their own time to shine and I couldn't get confused. There is one more qualm I have with the Netflix adaptation, but it will have to wait...
The Talented Mr Ripley
A Journey
We are introduced to Tom's philosophy early on:
It's better to be a fake somebody, than a real nobody.
Sure, that's how it must have felt in post-World War Two America, when the elusive American Dream still haunted the nights and days of regular working-class men and women. Faking it didn't necessarily lead to making it, but Tom clearly isn't a stranger to breaking the rules just to survive, never mind thrive.
He is a scammer, cashing in strangers' cheques and leeching off his Aunt Dottie who took him in, then severing that tie in a single letter once a better opportunity arose. We aren't supposed to sympathise with him, of course, which is something that always troubled me when it came to unlikeable narrators. I had tried (and failed) to give the benefit of the doubt to Arthur Seaton and Patrick Bateman, to enjoy the story more than the person telling it. Tom Ripley didn't feel like so much of a struggle, and I think it's because he has a genuine love for life and the world that people built, even if his opinion of the people that now inhabit it is rather low.
Sure, he capitalises off the concern of a father trying to reunite his son with his ill mother, and that tie is severed as quickly as it is formed. But the journey he takes the reader on is a presented with a liveliness that only a man who could never have dreamt of running free around liberated Europe could achieve. Reading this book 70 years after publication evokes a similar feeling. The Europe (even America) of Ripley no longer exists and probably never will, so seeing his enchanted tourist's perspective feels like he gives us all an opportunity, reaches a hand out to the underprivileged even as he distances himself from it.
Herein lies my qualms with the Netflix adaptation. As soon as I finished reading I commented on bluesky that the novel feels like a travel narrative propelled by the coincidence of murder. The clear skies and seas of Mongibello, the artefacts of Rome, Naples, and countless hotels lobbies and post offices Ripley visited and made accomplices to his crimes were as colourful as the character himself.
So, the decision to shoot the show in black and white at first perplexed me, and then upset me.
I wouldn't call Mr Ripley a noir novel. Its vivid settings don't take away from the story but add to it. Why choose to adapt a story in sunny Southern Europe if you are only going to strip the colour away? The story as it played out on my screen felt old, slow, and dull, and I don't see myself enjoying it if I ever do finish it.
Identity (or Not)
From a real somebody to a fake nobody and back, Tom Ripley's character is anything but natural. It's a study:
But of course nature prevails. Slips of the tongue, sudden panic, terror and lack of composure (there has, of course, been a murder) make his character so interesting. To me, neither of his murders felt calculated or as convincing as his character work. Tom didn't plan to kill the first time, and the second time was a spur of the moment decision. His recovery from both of these is, frankly, more impressive.
I remember, both murders were committed with things he happened to have on hand. In my head Tom isn't a murderer, but a cover-up artist.
Which begs the question: who is he, really?
A grifter, a scammer, an opportunist? For someone who doesn't really seem to like people at all, he does a great job at imitating them, living their lives, even parading himself as them. It makes him feel good to be someone else, until it no longer pays. Escaping from escapism means once again donning the name and face of Tom Ripley, but he's not the same person, is he? Even if Dickie Greenleaf is gone (in body and reputation) Tom can't outrun his guilt. His greatest scam left him rich, but always looking over his shoulder.
Was he going to see policemen waiting for him on ever pier that he ever approached? In Alexandria? Istanbul? Bombay? Rio?
The underlying paranoia that followed him from America across Europe twice over is reduced to a buzz in his ear. This aspect, I believe, was taken for granted. There are sequels I haven't read yet, but taking this novel as a standalone, I think the 1999 movie adaptation did it a great service in changing the ending. Tom is forced to momentarily resume Dickie's character after he has been libeled, and is caught by another man he has since entered into a peaceful relationship with as Tom Ripley himself. The glimmer of hope that the novel concludes with, of sailing away with riches and new friends, vanishes as he is forced to murder Peter Smith-Kingsley on the boat. The cycle he started in San Remo is far from closing.
Concluding Remarks and Rating
Patricia Highsmith's novel is one of the main inspirations behind my dissertation piece (title TBD) which I aim to develop into a full-length novel, but also to my writing in general. Tom Ripley weighs heavy on my mind with every character I write, with every instance that I ask myself 'would this character really say this?' This book brought to my attention that even character breaks can be in-character if written well enough. I therefore have to give this book a 5 out of 5. Ripley is one of English literature's finest characters and surely a model for all consequent crime fiction protagonists.