Given the question: Build a movie plot around this: How much will Tom be paid to bring Dickie back? $1,000
The answer is:
Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is a young man struggling to make a living in 1950s New York City using his "talents"; forgery, lying and impersonation. One day, while working as a restroom attendant at a fancy Manhattan hotel, he meets a Princeton graduate who bribes him to work at an alumni party at playing the piano because the Princeton guy just broke his hand and cannot play. Ripley accepts.While playing piano at a cocktail party, Ripley is approached by wealthy shipbuilder Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn), who mistakenly believes that Ripley went to Princeton with his son, Dickie, because Ripley is wearing the borrowed Princeton blazer. Greenleaf recruits Ripley to travel to Italy and persuade Dickie to return to the United States, for which he will pay Ripley $1,000. Ripley accepts the proposal, even though he did not attend Princeton and has never met Dickie.Ripley's personal life is soon revealed after the party where he lives in a small, two-room apartment in a rundown part of the city. His home town and orgins are unknown. It is implied that several years earlier, Ripley came out as a homosexual to his parents who reacted by throwing him out of their house and severing all ties with him. Now alone, Ripley struggles to get by without family support as well as search for his one true love as an outlet for his loneliness.Upon arriving by ship in Europe, Ripley meets a young and wealthy textile heiress named Meredith Logue (Cate Blanchett). During their brief conversation he impulsively pretends to be Dickie, later commenting in voice-over that "it is better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody."Shortly after his arrival in Italy, Ripley fakes a chance encounter on the beach with Dickie (Jude Law) and his fiancee, Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), and attempts to convince Dickie that the two met at Princeton. Ripley later visits Dickie and Marge and discloses that Dickie's father paid him to travel to Europe and persuade Dickie to return home. This revelation infuriates Dickie; he declines the invitation...