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Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 62 Ratings

  • Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Matt Damon
  • Summary: In the 1950's, a young American, Mr. Ripley (Damon), is sent to Europe to retrieve a spoiled millionaire playboy (Law). When the errand fails, Ripley kills the playboy and assumes his life.
  • Director: Anthony Minghella
  • Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Romance, Crime
  • Rating: R
  • Runtime: 139 min
  • More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 35
  2. Negative: 2 out of 35
  1. 100
    The movie is as intelligent a thriller as you'll see this year.
  2. 80
    Although he never matches the book in either brilliance or sheer perversity, Minghella has remained essentially true to his source.
  3. Reviewed by: David Ansen
    60
    Damon's Ripley is considerably different from the charming sociopath in Patricia Highsmith's novel or the smooth lothario played by Alain Delon in the 1960 French thriller "Purple Noon."
  4. It's ploddingly directed, indifferently acted and insufficiently frightening.

See all 35 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 27
  2. Negative: 5 out of 27
  1. ElizabethM.
    10
    This film is my all time favourite film. The scenery is beautiful, the acting is great and the film is extremely well written.
  2. 10
    First off, I would give it a 9.25 out of 10. Acting is pretty good. Story is great. Some fighting scenes can be pretty brutal. Also, the environments are pretty great looking. Score is good. Overall, it's a good, interesting movie that you should watch. Expand
  3. This film is actually very boring once you realise it. The pacing is just very uneven and there are multiple moments that don't even make that much sense and you wonder why they're there. Instead of Law's character being portrayed as annoying and stuck-up, nothing is there to illustrate his behaviour as annoying and stuck-up, so he just ends up looking like a spoilt brat with no proper explanation. Once he's gone, the thing just falls apart because Damon has nothing to go on and tries to look like a psychopath for the sake of it. Some scenes don't even fit together properly. That said, the scenery was very beautiful, so we got a nice backdrop that contrasted with the conflict that was going on between the characters. Plus, I found one scene particularly thrilling and heart-pounding, and to be honest, quite horrific actually. Expand
  4. SebH
    4
    Anyone who says this captures the essence of the novel is seriously wrong. Not only is Damon's Ripley everything that Highsmith said very explicitly that he wasn't (blatantly homosexual, obsessed with Dickie and his lifestyle, showing precious little premeditation to his plans and even showing remorse). Highsmith's Ripley was one of the best literary characters ever created, as insecure as he is confident and cool, but the bumbling, grinning dork up on the screen didn't remind me of him at all. Minghella made the very bold move of taking this film in different directions to the book, but it suffers as a result, particularly with the introduction of two new vapid, unconvincing characters (Peter Smith Kingsley and Meredith Logue). They fail very badly, as do all the other Hollywood-ised bastardisations of the original characters. Ripley was such a great potential film, and, though this is not without its merits, it ultimately fails to capture the spirit Highsmith wrote it in. I'm all for some degree of originality in an adaptation, but this practically spits in Highsmith's face, all in all designed to be a cold-hearted star vehicle. Expand

See all 27 User Reviews