Dramatizing duplicity in ‘Ripley’
ANDREW SCOTT made us believe in the unseen and impossible in 2023’s All of Us Strangers, where, as Adam, he goes back to his childhood home and finds his parents who passed on when he was young. There he confesses to his mom who he has become and cries to a father who was not there when he was alone, scared in the dark. But here in Ripley, Andres Scott, in the title role, makes us doubt everything—love, kindness, maleness. He makes killing a dreary art form, his insouciance ever apparent, the arrogance in check, his appearance as cool as the Brooks Brothers cotton shirts he has adopted as a uniform.
The limited series opens in New York in the 1960s. We meet Tom Ripley, a con artist who makes a living writing fake collection letters to unknowing clients. He is approached by a wealthy shipbuilding magnate, who took Tom as a former classmate of his son, Dickie Greenleaf, who has left for Europe and yet to come back. At the moment of the meeting, Dickie is in Italy studying painting, an endeavor the father never believes his son will ever get into. Thus begins the adventure of the talented Tom Ripley.
It is an adventure in pretend that is made so exciting because even as the other characters, like Dickie and his girlfriend, Marge, appear not to believe in the persona of Tom, the same character is so strong we almost encourage others to take him in.
The appeal of Tom is written in the story about how in the scheme of things, there are individuals who can insert themselves into homes, in the inner recesses of any human activity, and find themselves acceptable, or, at least, tolerated. And there, in those interstitial spaces, lies are born and passed off as truth.
At the center of this magical charade is Andrew Scott, with that face so open and yet holding back not only personal secrets but also desire, even lust. The problem for the moralists as regards Ripley is how the plot has made the psychology of one deceitful person not only seductive but also compellingly desirable.
Critics are talking of the close-up shots of Andrew Scott as Tom and how we can practically feast on his limitless expressions—from the subtle shading of the glance, which he does by tilting his head, and from a gracious smirk that is revelatory of his duplicity. But if Tom is duplicitous, aren’t we all?
This power of Scott, as an actor, is evident already during that first meeting with the parents of Dickie. He drops the name “Princeton” like weightless Ferragamo cufflinks, and, under his breath, talks of non-existent rich parents who perished in an accident.
His ability to control the other people’s apprehension of his background is but a surface form of his treasure trove of lies that are almost limitless. It is when he begins to scrape the bottom of his narratives that he pursues other actions, which include murder and more murder.
And yet, there is another more persuasive presence in the film Ripley and this is in the cinematography as directed by Robert Elswit. For the first time, after so many years, here is a film where the visuals have gained primacy as the storyteller par excellence. In shot after shot, circles of blacks and grays suffuse the screen as images cease to be merely atmospheric. There seems to be no limit as to the geometric shapes the streets and structures in Italy assume as the actions of Tom Ripley in relation to the other characters begin to take other forms, other meanings.
Elswit has always been a believer of shooting in black-and-white and employing film rather than digital technology. And indeed the difference is marked and obvious: the wet pavement and the shadows on the walls hark back to the era of silent films where majestic images are as much part of the performance of the actors on the screen. Think of the Cabinet of Dr Caligari or even of Metropolis. The feeling that there is fastidious thinking involved in the making of this cinema.
Elswit has worked with many black-and-white films, the most noted is that done with George Clooney, titled Goodnight, and Good Luck. He has also collaborated with Paul Thomas Anderson, and won the Academy Award for There Will be Blood in 2008.
Ripley is based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel
The Talented Mr. Ripley, a film version starring Matt Damon as Tom was made in 1999. The present Ripley stars Dakota Fanning as Marge and Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf.
Directing Ripley, an eight-episode limited series, is Steven Zaillian, as written by Zaillian himself. Completing the neo-noirish film is the dark and somber music by Jeff Russo.
It is streaming on Netflix.