The finish of the film is as bitter and wry as all who have been enjoying the film would want. The Talented Mr. Ripley would be only a somewhat pretentious, patchy thriller except for the Hitchcockian air that envelops it. He had made The English Patient , widely celebrated, and many critical mouths were watering in advance for the next feast. For myself, I thought his earlier film was distended and sententious, and ended ridiculously. But what is unmistakable in Mr. Ripley and its reception is its entry into the Hitchcock circle.
Academic analysts are always hungry for analysable material.
Two members of the cast, Jude Law as Dickie and Philip Seymour Hoffman as a veteran idler, are vivid. Matt Damon as Tom is Matt Damon as anyone, doing and saying what is expected of him with passable ease. As Dickie's girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow, who was surprisingly fresh in Shakespeare in Love , returns to her previous blandness. John Seale's cinematography is disappointing. He worked richly in Witness and Rain Man and The English Patient .