Ripley's Game (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Ripley's Game (2002) is a feature film based on the 1974 novel of the same name; the third in Patricia Highsmith's "Ripliad", a series of books chronicling the murderous misadventures of con artist Tom Ripley. John Malkovich stars as Highsmith's anti-hero, and Dougray Scott as Jonathan Trevanny.
Plot
The mysterious (and psychopathic) Mr. Ripley (John Malkovich) is living in Europe and is involved in an art scam in Berlin, partnered with the crude Reeves (Ray Winstone), whom he leaves out on the street as the deal goes down. A violent argument breaks out, resulting in Tom Ripley getting the better end of the deal and informing Reeves that their business relationship is at an end.
Ripley returns to the Italian villa he shares with Luisa, a beautiful musician. Invited to a party by a neighbor, Ripley is having a pleasant time until he overhears the host, Trevanny (Dougray Scott), insulting him as an American who has tarnished the villa with too much extravagance but "no taste."
Reeves reappears. He needs a man killed and Ripley is the killer he requires. Out of revenge for the slight, or perhaps simply to relieve his boredom, the sociopathic Ripley recommends a pure amateur to be Reeves' hired assassin -- Trevanny, a law-abiding art framer who is terminally ill.
Trevanny is astounded and can't understand how Reeves came to choose him. However, he is tempted by the money, which he could leave to his wife, Sarah (Lena Headey), upon his death.
He goes through with the job, a hit in Berlin, which he assumes will be a one-time-only assignment. Reeves has other ideas. He blackmails Trevanny into taking on another assassination, this time a complicated one on a train.
Ripley intervenes in the nick of time to assist Trevanny, having gotten him into this in the first place. After a series of violent murders on the train, Trevanny returns home, where he attempts to persuade Sarah that the money he suddenly possesses is the result of his having volunteered for an experimental medical treatment in Berlin.
The victims' men come to Italy seeking revenge. They storm the villa and leave Reeves' body in a car trunk. Ripley has set traps for them, however and with Trevanny's help, he dispatches each.
Trevanny is grateful but his wife is not. Horrified, she confronts her husband just as yet another killer comes to their home. Ripley arrives in time to save their lives, although in the end it is Trevanny who rescues him.
Critical Reaction
Five films involving the Ripley character inspired by Patricia Highsmith's books have been made. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that of the four he has seen, he considers Ripley's Game to be "without question the best" and that "Malkovich is precisely the Tom Ripley I imagine when I read the novels."
Trivia
- Film critic Roger Ebert listed Ripley's Game as one of his "Great Movies" (April 21, 2006).
- The 1977 Wim Wenders film The American Friend was based on the same novel.
