Ripley’s Game (2002) Liliana Cavani

If you’ve never heard of Ripley’s Game, you’re not alone. Most moviegoers missed the film, largely due to the fact that it was never released theatrically in America. At the time, the film’s distributor Fine Line (part of New Line Cinema) was so busy promoting the final film in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King, that Ripley’s Game got lost in the shuffle. As a result, many people never saw one of John Malkovich’s finest performances in what may be the best of the Ripley movies, which is no small feat. 

That list of films includes Purple Noon (1960), The American Friend (1977), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Ripley Under Ground (2004), with Tom Ripley portrayed by Alain Delon, Dennis Hopper, Matt Damon, and Barry Pepper respectively. Malkovich is a much older actor playing a much older Tom Ripley than in any of the other Ripley films and that maturity - both in the actor and the role - adds a tremendous amount of depth to the film. 

Malkovich’s Ripley has always known how to exist keeping his crimes under the radar. No, “exist” is rather inaccurate; Ripley knows how to thrive as a criminal, which he does living in an Italian villa with his wife and a large assortment of the finer things that money (stolen or earned, which is often the same thing) can buy. He’s always been confident, but now, approaching middle-age, Ripley is patient, precise, and unshakable. Oh, and deadly.  

At a dinner party, a man named Trevanny (Dougray Scott) tells a group of guests that his neighbor Tom Ripley is just another American with “too much money and no taste.” He says this just as Ripley enters the room, hearing Trevanny’s entire rant. The next few moments are priceless as Ripley completely controls the situation as the dinner guests hold their collective breath. 

One of Ripley’s former partners, a British man named Reeves (Ray Winstone) - whom Ripley can barely tolerate - needs Ripley to kill a man for him. Ripley refuses, but tells Reeves that no one would ever suspect someone who’s completely innocent, someone like Trevanny. Ripley reasons that Trevanny - who has a terminal illness - has nothing to lose and the job would help provide for his family after his death. But such things never turn out quite the way we expect. 

If you’ve read any of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels or seen any of the aforementioned films, you know that Ripley is going to wreak some serious havoc, which he does. It should come as no surprise that Malkovich is certainly up to that task. Neither should it surprise you that the film includes several instances of dark humor, particularly in one scene on a train. What is surprising is that we see something of Tom Ripley’s humanity in some unexpected ways, both in the manner in which he treats women and in some of the revelations he experiences. Ripley’s Game is one of those films that’s intelligent, fun, suspenseful and well-acted, certainly one you should not miss.  

4/5