This movie is a classic case of design-by-committee ruining a production. What makes it special is... you get the feeling that everyone understood this. They didn't even try to make a serious product. This movie makes choices that are so bafflingly silly there's no way the people signing off on them didn't know. They didn't care, and this lack of seriousness opens up the space for some decently fun moments. This is a bad movie of the enjoyable kind.
Reviews
2 Reviews
The Talented Mr. Ripley
(1999)
cat and mouse chase for a hidden-in-plain-sight gay guy
25 February 2021
Behind a front layer of being a psychological thriller there's really just a fun Catch Me If You Can type situation going in this movie.
The plot outline of this movie reminds a lot of an opera. It has all the melodrama, the love, the murder, the farce, the tension between low and high society, the characters disguising themselves as each other. It's great.
But it's a lot more emotionally nuanced than just that. You're always guessing for what people know and don't know, trying to tell by their behaviour. This can only be accomplished with firmly above-average acting performances.
What I appreciated about the movie as well were some deliberately odd direction choices that accentuated the main character's bewildered mental state.
There's a cute gay couple in here, but the movie plays around a little too much with the queer psycho trope. The main character really isn't as creepy as the movie implies (at least not to me). He's more a tragic hero than an anti-hero in my book, performing desperate acts to get out desperate situations.
Didn't like the ending. Felt unnecessary.
The plot outline of this movie reminds a lot of an opera. It has all the melodrama, the love, the murder, the farce, the tension between low and high society, the characters disguising themselves as each other. It's great.
But it's a lot more emotionally nuanced than just that. You're always guessing for what people know and don't know, trying to tell by their behaviour. This can only be accomplished with firmly above-average acting performances.
What I appreciated about the movie as well were some deliberately odd direction choices that accentuated the main character's bewildered mental state.
There's a cute gay couple in here, but the movie plays around a little too much with the queer psycho trope. The main character really isn't as creepy as the movie implies (at least not to me). He's more a tragic hero than an anti-hero in my book, performing desperate acts to get out desperate situations.
Didn't like the ending. Felt unnecessary.
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