The Screengrab : the english patient

No, But I've Read the Movie: THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY

Leonard Pierce — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:30:00 GMT

Like a handful of the better noir and pulp writers, Patricia Highsmith has undergone a bit of a positive critical reappraisal of late, although one has to wonder if critics and casual fans are more interested in her actual writing than her bisexuality, alcoholism and often-controversial personal life. Whatever the case, the rediscovery of Highsmith's books in recent years was followed by a spate of interest in adapting her works for film. Naturally, the most attention was focused on the so-called "Ripliad", her series of novels featuring the amoral, cynical trickster and killer Tom Ripley; while 2002's Ripley's Game, bouyed by a tremendous performance in the lead role by John Malkovich, was the better film, 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley got far more attention and made far more money. This was thanks largely to a successful marketing campaign, a coincidental tapping of the zeitgeist, and the fact that several of its stars were at their peak of popularity. There have been other Ripleys (Highsmith herself loved Alain Delon in Rene Clement's Purple Noon) and other filmed versions of Ripliad novels (Wim Wenders made a memorable, if confused, version of Ripley's Game as The American Friend in 1977), but none has stayed in the public consciousness as the one that teamed the recently deceased Anthony Minghella with Matt Damon.

In most ways, The Talented Mr. Ripley is the best of the Ripley novels, and one of Patricia Highsmith's best novels overall. It was the purest expression of her fascination with anti-heroic figures who carried around a silent delight in their defiance of law and propriety; it also featured some of her most coolly murderous prose, the quality of her writing that critics most admire. Her deliberate, incisive writing seemed almost subversive at times, so plainly and nastily could she capture those who circumvented decent society. But it was not without its flaws, most noticably her writing of female characters: Highsmith seemed either incapable of writing female characters as deep and dark as her male characters, or uninterested in doing so. Anthony Minghella's filmed version, with a solid cast and a big budget, had a chance to to capture all the strengths of the book while addressing its weaknesses.

WHAT IT HAD: Minghella was riding a peak of success at the time The Talented Mr. Ripley was filmed, having won widespread popular and critical acclaim with his previous movie, The English Patient. His lead actors were equally hot: Matt Damon was as popular as he'd ever be, as was co-star Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law was enjoying some level of success in the U.S. for the first time. Cate Blanchett scored a key role that helped launch her big-screen career, and Minghella staffed the picture with solid character actors like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Philip Baker Hall in supporting roles. It's also a gorgeous film, with breathtaking locations, beautiful cinematography (by John Seale) and stellar set design and period costumes. Whatever its flaws, Ripley takes no shorts with its look and feel.

WHAT IT LACKED: The script, also by Anthony Minghella, is an absolute mess. Even leaving aside how completely wrong Minghella gets the whole point of Ripley's character (about which see below), he doesn't even seem to know what he wants to do with the story. He has no feel whatsoever for the tone of it -- it seems to veer moodily from character study to thriller to romantic idyll -- and he puts so much effort into how it looks he doesn't have much time for how it reads or sounds. There's almost none of Highsmith's vicious, precise dialogue, and the characters are clearly more creations of Minghella's sensibilities than they are Highsmith's, which wouldn't be a problem if this was an entirely different movie. As it is, it comes across as a total mismatch of source and adapter.

DID IT SUCCEED?: If all you're looking for is beautiful people in beautiful surroundings, sure -- but if you want the deadly playfulness and black-hearted gamesmanship of Patricia Highsmith's books, you won't find them here. At heart, Anthony Minghella was a steadfast romantic, while Highsmith -- and Tom Ripley -- were bloody-minded cynics. Minghella wants to turn Tom Ripley into a tragic and heartbreaking figure, which is a complete misreading of the character and a tin-eared understanding of why he's so appealing to begin with. He also takes Ripley's subtly implied homosexuality -- the least interesting thing about him, in the book -- and makes it explicit and paramount, to the point of absurdity: the movie ends with Ripley murdering his lover with tears in his eyes, something that the grinning sociopath of the book would never think of doing. There are plenty of tragic romantics in the annals of crime fiction; to turn the almost joyfully manipulative, supremely cunning Tom Ripley into one of them is such a disastrous choice that it sinks the whole movie.

Anthony Minghella: Samuel Beckett's "Play"

Phil Nugent — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:00:00 GMT

The death of Anthony Minghella yesterday cut short the career of a gifted filmmaker who may have only begun to discover his own potential. Minghella's first movie, the 1991 Truly, Madly, Deeply, was small scale but struck deep in its emotional impact; a deserving cult hit, one could barely guess from its intimate charms that Minghella would, by the time of The English Patient, begin to demonstrate a rare contemporary mastery of epic filmmaking, bringing rich textures to the screen while skillfully deploying vast crews and across sprawling landscapes. One of Minghella's smallest and least-known projects is his two-aprt, fifteen-minute version of Samuel Beckett's Play (2000), Mighella's contribution to the multi-director, comprehensive "Beckett on Film": project. This bizarre, striking realization of the playwright's image-play about a man, his wife, and his mistress trapped together for eternity also serves as an intriguing footnote to the director's career for reuniting him with the stars of his first film, Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman, and the female lead of his biggest hit, Kristen-Scott Thomas.

Anthony Minghella, 1954 - 2008

Peter Smith — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:45:00 GMT

The Screengrab's Paul Clark is away from a workable computer, but asked me to post this tribute to Anthony Minghella:

MSN is reporting that Oscar-winning filmmaker Anthony Minghella passed away last night from a brain hemorrhage. Minghella, whose next film, the HBO/BBC production No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, is set to premiere next month in the UK, was fifty-four years old.

To many moviegoers, Minghella was best known as the director of prestige pictures such as The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Cold Mountain. In fact, so associated was he with high-toned adaptations that he recently appeared as the moderator of a literary program in last year's Atonement. But his best work was not so easily pigeonholed. In his directorial debut, 1990's Truly Madly Deeply, Minghella employed a quirky sense of humor in service of a story about letting go of a departed loved one. In addition, to dismiss his best-known works as mere Oscar-bait is to overlook their emotional violence and often strange visions. Minghella's most recent film, the underseen Breaking and Entering, hinted at a move toward more personal projects.

Minghella began his career as a writer, writing numerous episodes of Jim Henson's The Storyteller for television and later serving as creator for The Storyteller: Greek Myths. He was also well-versed in theatre, having recently directed a production of Madame Butterfly for the New York Metropolitan Opera, and adapted Beckett's short drama Play for 2000's Beckett on Film Project. Minghella also headed the British Film Institute for a number of years.

My deepest condolences to Minghella's friends and family. For those of us who didn't know Minghella personally, there can be no greater tribute to his life than to celebrate his work. Personally, I plan to revisit Truly Madly Deeply, still my favorite film of his, and one that feels appropriate under the circumstances.

Breaking: Anthony Minghella Dead at 54

Peter Smith — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:30:00 GMT

This just in: Anthony Minghella, director of The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain, is dead at fifty-four. Little is known right now, but expect more details as the day goes on. We'd previously reported that Minghella was considering an English-language remake of last year's arthouse hit The Lives of Others. That sounds like a bad idea, but it's a damn shame to see Minghella go. More to follow.

And the ReOscar Goes to…Peter Fonda?

Scott Von Doviak — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:00:00 GMT

While we’ve been busy with our spreadsheets and slide rules, trying to figure who the big winners will be come Sunday night, Time’s Richard Corliss is just getting around to giving his picks for the 1998 Oscars. No, Corliss hasn’t slipped through some sort of wormhole in the space-time continuum. Instead he’s presenting Time’s First Annual Re-Oscars.

The premise is that the Academy may have occasionally made a mistake or two over the years, a controversial notion we’re nonetheless prepared to embrace. "What we're offering is a second chance at the Academy Awards handed out on March 23, 1998," Corliss writes. "To a lot of people, the record eleven Oscars that James Cameron's Titanic lapped up that night were suitable acknowledgment of a much-loved movie that quickly became the top box-office attraction in film history. We're asking how Titanic, which was named the Best Picture of 1997, and the performances that won in the four actor categories have stood the test of time. And we're answering: Eh, not so well."

If your memory of the films that challenged Titanic for Best Picture that year is a little shaky, we don’t blame you. Somehow we’d forgotten those timeless classics As Good as It Gets and The Full Monty were nominated as well, although with guns to our heads we probably could have guessed Good Will Hunting made the final five. Given those choices, we’ll go along with Corliss’s selection of L.A. Confidential as the first Re-Oscar winner, although his reasoning is a little shaky: “A guilty secret of film criticism is that reviewers often lavish their fondness on modern versions of the kinds of genres they don't make any more. Thus The English Patient, a film in the David Lean epic tradition, was my choice for best film of 1996. L.A. Confidential is a time trip back to the period in which it's set, the early '50s, when film noir (as the French called Hollywood's crime dramas) argued that postwar optimism was a lie — that brutality and betrayal lurked around the every city street corner, where the cop on the beat might also be on the take.”

Corliss also reminds us of one of the laziest Academy decisions in recent memory: Jack Nicholson winning his third Oscar for his Jack Nicholson-esque performance in As Good as It Gets. "Nicholson had lost an Oscar a few times when he deserved one: in Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and especially Chinatown, a great performance that lost to Art Carney's turn as a lonely older guy with health problems in Harry and Tonto. . . Chalk up Nicholson's third Oscar as an early Life Achievement Award." Instead, Corliss chooses to recognize Peter Fonda’s nearly forgotten turn in the all-around understated Ulee’s Gold. Hey, we’re happy for him. For the rest of the ReOscar roster, click here.