Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4920 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-02-16
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, German, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ripley's Game is a well-appointed star vehicle in which the slippery protagonist of The Talented Mr Ripley returns in another deadly guise. The star this time is John Malkovich, whose older Tom Ripley has settled into an Italian villa and a life of aesthetic contemplation (a little like Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal). A former partner (Ray Winstone) drags an innocent frame-maker (Dougray Scott), dying of leukaemia, into the role of unexpected hit man. Ripley, for his own enigmatic reasons, helps. Liliana Cavani, of The Night Porter notoriety, directed this handsome if nebulous film (which has no connection to the Matt Damon picture, other than a Patricia Highsmith source novel). Malkovich exudes his usual oily disenchantment with the world; Lena Headey, like the location footage, is gorgeous. The same novel was adapted in very different style by Wim Wenders for his brilliant 1977 film, The American Friend, with Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz. --Robert Horton

DVD Description
Three years after walking off with millions of dollars’ worth of forged Renaissance drawings, Tom Ripley (John Malkovich) has settled into a life of culture and opulence in Italy. One night however, Ripley finds his complacency disturbed when he overhears himself insulted by Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott), a terminally ill ex-pat. While any ordinary sociopath might settle for a mild act of retribution, the game Ripley devises is far subtler – and infinitely more sinister.

An unwelcome visit from a former criminal protégé offers Ripley his chance for revenge. Reeves (Ray Winstone) has eveolved from a small-time thug into a powerful underworld figure and has now come back to ask his one-time mentor for help. The Russian mafia is moving in on his turf in Berlin and Reeves needs someone completely unconnected with criminal circles to assassinate a brutal Moscow gang boss. Ripley declines to take on the job himself but suggests an ideal candidate: a dying man with little to lose and an urgent need to secure the financial security of his wife, Sarah (Lena Headley) and young son …

Special Features

• Cast and filmmakers’ interviews
  
• On location

DVD Technical Information:

• Running time: 110 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Fabulous and rather different film
Although I have read the book on which this film is based, I had heard that this film would have to be good to live up to highly acclaimed Ripley series.
I have been a fan of John Malkovich for a long time, having always admired his enchantingly smooth exterior and unforgettable face. All his attributes contribute flawlessly to give Tom Ripley a haunting and mysterious yet oddly likeable character.
The actual quality of filming is very high indeed, from the beautiful panaormic scenes of Ripley's home and grounds to the dark sinister and claustrophobic atmosphere of the express train.
To my mind this film is a hark back to the days of suspense and sinister film-making (think Hitchcock) which is certainly welcome in my view.
Definately a film to buy and treasure

Just Dark Enough...
Patricia Highsmith's tour de force of eccentric crime fiction; known to initiates as The Ripliad, makes fertile ground for film-makers, [like The American Friend] with varying results. Having read the entire series of books many years ago, I always felt that casting Matt Damon in the lead role for the first - The Talented Mr Ripley - was a dreadful mistake, being far too unsure and not nearly urbane enough. This latter deficiency doesn't even register with John Malkovich's portrayal of Tom Ripley, which hardly comes as a surpise, considering his darkly presence-filled personality, which is the core feature of Ripley's Game. If anything, Malkovich pushes the scale too far in the opposite direction, the strongest impression that the literary Ripley gives, is one of almost bland ordinariness, a characteristic not found in the film at almost any level. Malkovich's interpretation also suffers somewhat from being possibly too organised, rather than fortuitously bungling, but all these criticisms stem simply from a readers impression [I always imagined Ripley to be like Michael Palin]. This aside, the film itself, is excellent, with some memorable and startling photography, that indefinable Euromovie soul, and plently of louring, misty landscapes, which all add to the slightly oppressive aura of the film itself. Fortunately, the director has steered clear of the horribly inappropriate homo-erotic undertones of the first movie [what was that all about anyway?] and made an honest, classy, if not utterly faithful version of the second Ripley novel. All in all, despite its differences from the written original, this film is a treat and well worth adding to your collection.

Chilling, precise, tense ... yet empathetic and emotional
One thing to note before watching Ripley's Game is the following; it's not a sequel or follow up to Anthony Minghella's the Talented Mr Ripley. The only similarity they share is essentially the source material which is the books by Patricia Highsmith. Other than that they are two totally unrelated films and should not be compared.

Director Liliana Cavani gives us an intelligent, elegant film, featuring an older Tom Ripley (John Malkovich). He lives in the Italian countryside in a mansion with his female lover (an adaption from the book), a pianist. When insulted by innocent and terminally ill loving husband and father, Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott), Ripley is all to pleased but to help out an old colleage, Reeves (Ray Winstone) in using Trevanny in his place as an assassin.

Ripley's Game, through it's suave, efficient, handsome demeanour, is also emotional. In some ways the film is a journey of empathy for both Ripley and the terminally ill Trevanny. The film is ultimately the corruption of an innocent man but at the same time a deep character study of Tom Ripley and his motives for what he does. It is a film that is open to interpretation and there are many ways to see Ripley's character, a fact which makes the film so good. Once the credits roll and you think about the film, you begin to appreciate the numerous ways of looking at Ripley's game.

The performances are what make the film. Dougray Scott will provoke your sympathy with his character and gives a very human performance, working his emotions very well. John Malkovich, though, is the main tool of the film; without him, Ripley's Game would not be what it is; so in many senses, it is very much Malkovich's film and he will not fail to mesmerise the viewer in his performance of a man who is a total enigma, lacks emotion, kills, deceives people, but is also very likeable. I find it masterful that Malkovich is able to bring such a likeable quality to his character, who is essentially a psycopath ... but a highly intellectual and cultured one.

Aside from the acting, Ripley's Game boasts atmosphere, whether it be tense, sophisticated, or chilling. Adding a rich taste to some of the chilling sequences are classical/vocal pieces, evoking either dark wit or even emotion. It neatly cuts us atmosphere in several forms and puts it on a china plate, just like Ripley would want. It is also a very cultured film; the art, the wine, the medieval, quaint and idyllic Italian town, Ripley's beret and bike ... it even pins that eastern-feel of urban Berlin and the claustrophobia of trains.

Where Ripley's Game falls short, however is, although the script is a strong, moralistic one, full of sharp dialogue, without Malkovich it wouldn't be the same. Ripley's Game only other con is the fact that it could pass for a TV, 9 o'clock thriller/drama. Although it is cinematic, there is something strange that makes it sometimes look like it was filmed for TV.

Intelligent, cultured, enigmatic, moralistic - quite a lot like the character Tom Ripley himself. Although it could pass for a TV drama, it'd still be a damn good one.