Talented Mr. Ripley, The

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is as intelligent a thriller as you'll see this year.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

It's that rare movie with a sense of timeliness that is eternal, and a protagonist whose soul-crushed angst, even at its most fatal, speaks to the little boy/girl lost in everyone.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

This thriller is so expertly -- and perversely -- poised that audience members may find themselves secretly rooting for the duplicitous Ripley.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Minghella makes an enticing, intelligent, well-shaped picture about the extreme perils of class envy and sexual panic.

TNT RoughCut Christopher Brandon

The talented Mr. Minghella is aping Alfred Hitchcock as effectively as Tom Ripley is doing Dickie Greenleaf.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

A dark film that raises more questions than it answers -- and it's meant to.

Film.com John Hartl

In the hands of Minghella and his star, Matt Damon, Ripley has become a more complex character, in some ways more understandable and approachable, in other ways as enigmatic as ever.

Austin Chronicle Russell Smith

Just the thing to clear your Capra-glutted holiday movie palate.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Delivers all the expected moments of high suspense --that is worthy of Hitchcock

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The picture has fine ensemble acting and superb Italian scenery. It would have more power if it were shorter and tighter.

USA Today Mike Clark

In a possible breakthrough role, Law would seem to be the big winner.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A slick, twisty, top-of-the-line crime thriller with gorgeously sensual textures and a screenful of wickedly faceted performances.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

The only thing missing from this rich production is an emotional charge, which Highsmith could create on the page but which Minghella doesn't quite capture on screen.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's a refreshing sensation, even if it makes you feel a touch seasick at first, and the fittingly eerie conclusion to a lavish and unsettling movie.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

It demands people pay attention and look inward to find the private compass that will navigate us through murky sensibilities that are as capable of seducing us as they are Tom Ripley.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Carnal, glamorous and worth the price.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Performances are aces top to bottom

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A beautifully mounted and directed film that, despite the presence of Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow, is unexpectedly lacking in emotional impact.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The talented Mr. Minghella has made an imperfect movie but not an impersonal one. His morality tale means to get under the skin, and does.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

Although he never matches the book in either brilliance or sheer perversity, Minghella has remained essentially true to his source.

Film.com Robert Horton

May be Hitchcock on holiday, but that's a perfectly enjoyable vacation.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Matt Damon's performance isn't bad, but it pales in comparison with Law's.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Takes startling - and startlingly unpleasant - turns. This is not a film with anything approximating a conventional ending.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Minghella's psychological redraft muffles the menace, squanders the tension, throws away the main character and plot engine and turns Ripley into something he never was or should be.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

This film of mistaken identity, murder, class envy and (bi)sexual tension doesn't live up to its own promise.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

A near-perfect confection, a beautifully executed Hollywood all-you-can-eat salad bar of glamour, plot twists, breathtaking Mediterranean vistas, and jazz.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This coolly beautiful film is both a superior thriller and an engrossing study of a sociopath's progress.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

It must be hard to misread the tone of a book as single-minded as Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, but Anthony Minghella manages somehow.

Dallas Observer Scott Kelton Jones

Numbs as much as it unnerves.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Enter the world of the sociopathic killer and enjoy.

Slate David Edelstein

Matt Damon can't quite piece together a compelling poseur.

Newsweek David Ansen

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."

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel is commercial to the core.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It's ploddingly directed, indifferently acted and insufficiently frightening.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

It's a sign of how watered-down the movie is that only the supporting actors have any bite.