RIPLEY — A Perfect Crime Noir with A Scaresome Climax
Ripley (2024) Series Review by Movie Maniac Swati starring Andrew Scott, Johnny Flynn & Dakota Fanning Created by Steven Zaillian Streaming on Netflix
Rating 9.2/10
Genre/ Theme — Dark Noir Psychological Thriller, Dark Ambitions of a Con-man.
Desires are highly treacherous, they are essential for the self-actualization of a human being, they drive every person to excel in the highest potential but sometimes the same desires turn a human into a Darkling, when he or she pursues them relentlessly without giving any thought to the moral means for fulfilling them. They make people devoid of any regret or remorse when they are seeking the unsatiable lust for dark ambitions. Desires can make anyone lost in the Labyrinth of riches, pleasures, and temptations, losing their humanity with each step towards the core of the darkness, now imagine if a man is already introduced to evil, provided with an opportunity to slip further down the slope, then the horrors we witness can never be unseen such is a story of Ripley, a con-man who has gone so far down into the abyss, chasing his darkest dreams. He is a liar by profession, an artist of identity theft, and a person who can brilliantly maintain his calm temperament in the most tense situations. He is highly charismatic, and even though we are witnessing his story full of murder & treachery, but we somehow feel an attraction toward his character, we are highly interested in how he will make a fool out of investigative authorities. The Series is highly Artistic, written & directed by visionary & Oscar-winning screenplay writer Steven Zaillian, words are not enough to describe the creativity of the Direction and the Cinematography, every frame in black & white is like a portrait into the mind of the creator, what a beautiful vision to create such an artistic slow burn, dark noir Psychological Thriller with so much details to each and every scene. The acting of Andrew Scott in the lead character of Ripley along with the supporting actors is highly immersive, this series is going to win many awards at Emmy as well as Golden Globes in the Limited series category. The series is an adaptation of 1955’s classic crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. It has already been adopted in a highly celebrated 1999 Noir movie starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow & Cate Blanchett, it was also loosely adopted in the recent dark thriller movie Saltburn by Emerald Fennel starring Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi & Rosamund Pike, this adaptation has surpassed the previous ones, it is one of the best shows I watched in recent years.
The story starts in 1961 New York, Tom Ripley, a highly skilled con man is going through a rough phase, living in downright poverty, looking over his shoulder for any trouble, he was being chased by the lawmen. An opportunity was presented towards him, he is recruited by a wealthy person to find his Prodigal son Dickie who is living in Italy in leisure, Ripley is to convince him to return to New York so that he can start looking after the family business, in utter desperation Ripley accepts the job. However, when he sees the lavish lifestyle of Dickie & his girlfriend Marge in Europe, his dark desires lead him on a path up to a point of no return, full of deception, theft & murder, the story is so shocking, it brings out the deepest scary chills. Dickie is running from his family heirloom, seeking the life of an Artist in serene Atrani city, Italy. He is a simple-minded person who is easy to manipulate, Ripley finds it very easy to play his deceptive tricks on Dickie. Marge on the other hand is a smart woman, she is an aspiring writer, trying to complete her book, a travelogue about Atrani. Ripley manipulated Dickie to allow him to live in his house, and thus Ripley started to weave his stronghold around him, creating confusion using deception at every step. Marge became suspicious of Ripley’s motive and asks Dickie to get rid of Ripley but what happens next what beyond anything one can imagine, beating all odds Ripley successfully deceived everyone into believing in a very thin false narrative with meticulous planning and trickery, he keeps telling everyone he is a good person and one by one everyone fell into his bottomless pit of deception.
Now let’s unravel more about the pros & cons of the Series Ripley
The strongest positive aspect of the series is the Screenplay. Slow burn screenplay written by Steven Zaillian feels like a sting, in the initial episodes we are completely blown away by the enigmatic character of Ripley, and his treacherous predatory nature, and later on, once the story hits the midpoints it starts unraveling like a deeply thrilling noir, we became trapped into the captivating story, now we can’t escape until we know the ending, will Ripley be able to evade capture or he will be punished for his heinous crimes. Steven Zaillian won his Oscar for Schindler’s List & his other prominent works are films like Gangs of New York & Irishman, & his creative screenplay in Ripley is one of his epitomai works as a screenplay writer.
Next comes the acting. Andrew Scotts’ act as Ripley was truly immersive, we can’t peek into Ripley’s mind about his plans & tricks, his face & eyes are always calm, capable of deceiving anyone. He always wears a veil, no one is capable of seeing his dark soul. We can truly know him when he is alone, meticulously weaving a cobweb of lies and deception. Ripley is mesmerizing when he has to instantaneously adapt to a difficult situation, he is highly spontaneous & Andrew pulled off that particularity amazingly. Andrew is a wonderful actor, he was awesome as James Moriarity in the Sherlock series and recently I watched his soul-touching performance in queer romantic movie All of Us Strangers.
Further, the supporting cast is wonderful too. Johnny Flynn in the character of Richard ‘Dickie’ Greenleaf was suitable as the Elite, he is kindhearted, trying to figure out his life as a painter, he is careless enough to let the wolf enter his doors, he didn’t have any clue what is going to happen to him. Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood is beautiful and graceful, she is smart, and has doubts about Ripley from the start but even with her sixth sense, she is not able to perceive what Ripley is capable of. The impressive character of Inspector Ravini was played by Italian actor Sergio Rubini, he has a powerful screen presence as a smart & intelligent detective, but Ripley was one step ahead of him always.
Now comes the direction, Steven Zaillian’s creative direction blew me away, what an impressive display of the details of every scene, moving slowly to let us feel more & more, we can feel our consciousness translocated into 1960s Italy. His directorial style in monochromatic black & white was really transcendental. With retro-style costumes, vintage model Fiat cars, locations, & proper Italian accents, I was not watching this show, I was really living it.
Finally, the cinematography needs special mention, it was one of the best camera works we can witness on Television, we were made to travel through the artistic & serene posh as well as countryside Italy, not in the present times but in the early ’60s. Every scene, every silhouette, every painting, every mural & every sculpture was meticulously depicted to take us into the past through the time machine of Artistic Cinema.
Talking about the cons, the series runs very slow, especially in the starting episodes, it is a very intense type of slow-burn thriller, made for artistic enrichment rather than mass-level relish, still, I am sure the captivating story with the enigmatic character of Ripley in the crime-noir setting of a cat & mouse chase finale is worth celebrating by every true lover of Cinema.
Episodes — 08
Runtime — 50–60 Mins Avg
Language — English & Hindi dubbed.
Gore — High
Violence — Very high.
Adult Scene — None.
Profanity — None.
Suitable For Adults
Image Credits — Netfix Tudum.
