Believe It Or Not: Book/Movie/TV Discussion

[AnimeMania]

Discuss the exploits of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" in his various forms.

[SunnyBeBe]

Oh, man I was hoping someone would want to discuss this series compared to the movie.  I’ve seen the movie at least a dozen times.  

[MollyB]

20 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Oh, man I was hoping someone would want to discuss this series compared to the movie.  I’ve seen the movie at least a dozen times.

Here I am!  I've read all the Ripley books and watched all the movies.  My favorite is the Matt Damon film, although John Malkovich delivers in Ripley's Game.

Matt Damon brought out the sympathy from me for Poor Tom.  He just wanted to belong. ( In the books I had less sympathy since he did a lot of criminal things just to get what he wanted.) Jude Law played an entitled prick so well, I wasn't that upset when he died.  And Philip Seymour Hoffman-wow.

Edited April 6 by MollyB

[Cementhead]

The movie is one of my top favourites so I knew this was going to a hard sell for me but I was intrigued enough to be open to the idea of it; especially considering I have such a hard time finding anything worth watching anymore.

I suppose if I had never seen the movie I would have made it a lot further than I did but as it stands, I only made it through episode one and the first half of the second because I just missed Matt Damon & Jude Law too much.  By the time Freddie enters the picture I am missing the brilliance of Philip Seymour Hoffman and decide to just pack it in because now all I really want to do is just go re-watch the movie. 

The casting of the movie was perfection.  It was like one of those lightning in a bottle moments where the leads formed the perfect ensemble.  I am unfamiliar with the 2 leads in the netflix series having never watched them in anything before.  While I am sure they are both fine actors, they are both too old for me to suit these roles.  I could maybe believe Andrew Scott is Tom Ripley if I stuck with it because he's 'from the streets' and can get away with looking a bit more 'lived in' but Johnny Flynn is too weathered to play the pampered & spoiled rich kid who lives the life of leisure for me.  Dakota Fanning seems to be doing an okay job of it but she is lacking the haughtiness and joie de vivre that Paltrow brought so easily and naturally to the role.

[SunnyBeBe]

Yeah, the casting here was not good, imo.  I still made it all the way through though. I thought the elder Mr. Greenleaf would have been a perfect role for Matt Damon with a little makeup. Can you imagine?  Lol. 
 

And, you would think playing Marge would have been easy, but I found Fanning flat. In fact, I found the entire cast flat, except for the detectives and hotel staff.
 

 It was beautifully shot and directed.  I missed Meredith.  And, I guess they left out Tom’s love interest that he takes the voyage with at the end.  The ending with the detective’s discovery was ok, but not as provocative as the Damon ending.  
 

I haven’t read the books, but have seen the Damon movie.  Think I’ll watch it again. I actually own the dvd, but have no idea where my dvd player is or if I still have it. Lol 

[MollyB]

4 hours ago, Cementhead said:

I suppose if I had never seen the movie I would have made it a lot further than I did but as it stands, I only made it through episode one and the first half of the second because I just missed Matt Damon & Jude Law

I was going to quit after one episode, too, because it seemed too slowly paced and dark, but then I got mesmerized by the water and saw the slow pace as really natural to the life and times.  The post office scenes, for example, were probably very realistic to the times. I had to not compare the movie because the Damon/Law movie was my favorite, too.  This series does reflect the books very well.  The black and white setting the tone, the scenery and buildings so on point and the attitudes of the characters were in synch with what people in 1960 were like.  I also liked that the story has not gone too far off the book.  So glad they included the runaway boat scene from the book.  That had me on the edge of my seat.

 

1 hour ago, SunnyBeBe said:

but I found Fanning flat.

It seems like she is posing rather than acting.  Very little movement or expression with her.  (I didn't like her in the Alienist for the same reason.)  It reminded me of when home movies became popular in the fifties (yes, I'm that old) and people would just stand while the camera whirred.  My dad would keep saying, "It's a movie! Move."

1 hour ago, SunnyBeBe said:

 Think I’ll watch it again.

Hulu has it and I think you can rent it on Prime.

[SunnyBeBe]

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it was a bit heavy on the Italian….speaking….lol. Sorry.  It was a bit much. And yes, I’ve watched entire movies with English subtitles. Not sure why this seemed so much.  

[MollyB]

18 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

 Think I’ll watch it again.

Hulu has it and I think you can rent it on Prime.

*I have to edit this...I checked again and it is no longer on Hulu.  It is available on Paramount+ with Showtime.  

15 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

but it was a bit heavy on the Italian

That bothered me a bit, too.  I think it was because they jumped back and forth to English.  I'd be listening and then realize I didn't understand a word of it.  I did like the morphing of the newspapers into English, although you had to be quick to read it.

[magdalene]

I liked the movie - it's been a long time since I have seen it though and I remember it as being kind of miscast.  Matt Damon came across as way too sympathetic.

I read all the books and this series comes closer in tone to the books. Even though the series main three actors are all too old for their roles I can picture them better as the book characters. The thing is that in the books you root for Ripley but not because he is a Matt Damonesque likable person.  You root for books Ripley kind of in spite of your moral make-up, ha. It also helps that I really dislike book Dickie and book Marge. Both this series and the books are very queer - coded and the movie is just very milk-toast and mainstream.

[SunnyBeBe]

The movie made me think a lot.  You never really know someone.  I also felt Tom/Matt had a teal talent for impersonation.  That was also presented in the series, but not nearly as impressive, imo.  

[magdalene]

I bought the movie on Prime last night so I could rewatch it after many years. I found I wasn't just to the movie in my memory.  It was an excellent movie though not faithful to the first Ripley book.  Dickie is a beautiful monster in the movie and Marge is much more sympathetic character in the movie than in the book. The invented characters for the movie of Meredith, a wealthy socialite, and Jack Davenports character who becomes Ripley's lover and who he has to strangle to keep Meredith from finding out everything ensure that the movie Ripley is quite trapped in the end.

This re-enforced my opinion that the new series is much closer in spirit to the five novels where Ripley lives quite comfortable through his various erm... adventures in crime and for all intents of purposes gets away with everything and never is the tragic character Matt Damon's Ripley is.

[Madding crowd]

I don’t think anyone can play Dickie as well as Jude Law. He has a charisma in the character that I don’t see here. I also think the movie explored the Tom/Dickie relationship better and Paltrow made a better Marge.  This Tom seems so dour I can’t see Dickie wanting to spend time with him. Still, this series has its charms and this Ripley is more sinister. The boat scene was fantastic. I have two more episodes to go and I will finish and then watch the movie again. 

[MollyB]

16 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

I don’t think anyone can play Dickie as well as Jude Law.

In the movie I could see why Tom gets angry and kills Dickie because of the way Jude Law played him.  Who wouldn't want to be that guy's best friend? Marge even says it's like the sun shines on you when Dickie is interested in you.

In this series, I could see why Tom would want to kill Dickie, not for friendship reasons, but because of the wealth.  Both Dickie and Marge came off as shallow,entitled rich kids dabbling inexpertly in the fine arts.  (We also feel the disdain for the wealthy Americanos from Det. Ravini when she wants a ride back home and he says there's a train and bus.)  I'm sure Tom felt he could do better things with their money and opportunities.  If he has to kill to do it, no big loss.

[Madding crowd]

Tom scammed people his whole life so it was always more about opportunity than whether Dickie deserved it. Still, his decision to kill Dickie when he did was more about him wanting to spend more time with Marge and wanted Tom to go home. I thought that in the book ( and in the movie), Highsmith indicated Tom had developed an emotional tie to Dickie while at the same time wanting to replace him. I don’t think this series did a good job of showing Tom being even briefly accepted as part of the in crowd, something he never was. To me this series emphasizes the criminal part of Tom even as he goes about everything in an amateur way.

[MaggieG]

On 4/6/2024 at 2:52 PM, Cementhead said:

Dakota Fanning seems to be doing an okay job of it but she is lacking the haughtiness and joie de vivre that Paltrow brought so easily and naturally to the role.

 

On 4/6/2024 at 5:44 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

And, you would think playing Marge would have been easy, but I found Fanning flat. In fact, I found the entire cast flat, except for the detectives and hotel staff.

I'm going to try to not sound like a hater but I really didn't like Dakota as Marge. I haven't read the book so I'm not sure which Marge is the more accurate one, but at least Gwyneth brought some charm to it.