Ripley's Game

Been watching Ripley's Game on DVD the last few nights (T can't actually watch an entire movie in one sitting, so everything is a serial for us).

Anyway, it's a sequel to The Talented Mr Ripley, with a new cast, new director, producers... everyone actually.

If memory serves it's the 3rd of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels. I'll have to get around to reading them one day.

In some ways, it's better that The Talented Mr Ripley - when I saw that for the first time, I found it kind of empty. And I wondered what it would have been like if Jude Law had played Ripley, and Matt Damon had been Dickie...

Watching John Malkovich assay an older, wiser & more confident version of the man, I was quite able to believe that maybe Damon's Ripley had turned into this guy over the years.

Anyways, it's pretty much present day Italy & our conscienceless (it used to bother him, but now he doesn't care) anti-hero is plotting an elaborate revenge on a terminally ill neighbour (Dougray Scott) who insulted him at a party, he's going to bring out the pathological killer in him, just to teach him a lesson.

Ray Winstone shines as an ex cohort/lover of Ripley's. And there's a bevy of euro-hotties on hand also.

For some reason this film went straight to DVD/Video, but it's a pretty classy film from the Italian director of the Night Porter, whose name I can't be bothered to look up at the moment.

On a tangent here, apparently there was a much better version of the Talented Mr Ripley, made in France in the 60s. That might be worth checking out too. Purple Noon