"They went up to Tom's room, and Dickie tried the bathrobe on and held the socks up to his bare feet. Both the bathrobe and the socks were the right size, and, as Tom had anticipated, Dickie was extremely pleased with the bathrobe". This is a passage from the beginning of this masterful book that is THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY (1955), by Patricia Highsmith, already adapted to the cinema more than once. As a huge fan, I was curious to watch the series RIPLEY (2024), but always suspicious that it wouldn't bring anything new. I was completely mistaken.
Only someone who really likes the story and has in-depth knowledge of it could carry out an adaptation of this level of quality, managing to turn the text around in an intelligent and original way, inverting several elements, most notably the fact that Dickie hates the robe that Tom chose, which activates an expression of disappointment in Tom, that goes completely unnoticed by Dickie, but could very well be the trigger for the hatred that Tom begins to nurture for Dickie.
The poor choice of robe is proof that Tom neither has refined taste nor occupies the social position he would like. This will be remembered later by Freddie Miles, when he glimpses the robe hanging on a door. In the end, even Tom realizes that that robe is not worthy of his new status, putting it in the trash. This importance attributed to the robe is, in fact, an excellent appropriation by the series creator, Steven Zaillian, of an element that, in the book, is only briefly mentioned in the beginning.
Freddie Miles also goes from being redheaded and plump to being dark-skinned and slender. Mongibello, a fictional town, is replaced by the real Atrani. Furthermore, both Tom and Dickie are well over 25 (if Andrew Scott initially seems unsuited to the role, the course of the story will prove otherwise, with his interpretation work being remarkable). Such adulterations confer some distinctive features to the series, although the essential remains, that is, a protagonist completely devoid of compassion, driven by envy, the desire to rise socially and the survival instinct, starting to kill whenever he feels threatened, but never feeling remorse. Someone who doesn't like himself and wants to be someone else, as shown, paradoxically, by the reflection that the mirror gives back to him when he wears Dickie's clothes. Paradoxical is also a the way it makes us feel as spectators: we end up wishing that Ripley will not be caught just to satisfy the curiosity of understanding where his amorality leads us.
In addition to inviting us to once again enter Tom Ripley's universe, the greatest triumph of this series is, without a doubt, the aesthetic-visual effect achieved with the choice of black and white, a beautiful photography and very well filmed and linked sequences (the boat sequence is perfect), which accentuates the atmosphere of suspense and mystery, inevitably transporting us to Hitchcock's films.
In the last part we are surprised by the appearance of John Malkovich, who played Tom Ripley in RIPLEY'S GAME (Liliana Cavani, 2002), in what we can consider a brief homage to the previous films. It's such a shame that the song we hear in the distance, in part VII, is not a fragment of "Tu vuò fà l'americano" (who doesn't remember Matt Damon and Jude Law making this song memorable, in Anthony Minghella's version, from 1999?).
Only someone who really likes the story and has in-depth knowledge of it could carry out an adaptation of this level of quality, managing to turn the text around in an intelligent and original way, inverting several elements, most notably the fact that Dickie hates the robe that Tom chose, which activates an expression of disappointment in Tom, that goes completely unnoticed by Dickie, but could very well be the trigger for the hatred that Tom begins to nurture for Dickie.
The poor choice of robe is proof that Tom neither has refined taste nor occupies the social position he would like. This will be remembered later by Freddie Miles, when he glimpses the robe hanging on a door. In the end, even Tom realizes that that robe is not worthy of his new status, putting it in the trash. This importance attributed to the robe is, in fact, an excellent appropriation by the series creator, Steven Zaillian, of an element that, in the book, is only briefly mentioned in the beginning.
Freddie Miles also goes from being redheaded and plump to being dark-skinned and slender. Mongibello, a fictional town, is replaced by the real Atrani. Furthermore, both Tom and Dickie are well over 25 (if Andrew Scott initially seems unsuited to the role, the course of the story will prove otherwise, with his interpretation work being remarkable). Such adulterations confer some distinctive features to the series, although the essential remains, that is, a protagonist completely devoid of compassion, driven by envy, the desire to rise socially and the survival instinct, starting to kill whenever he feels threatened, but never feeling remorse. Someone who doesn't like himself and wants to be someone else, as shown, paradoxically, by the reflection that the mirror gives back to him when he wears Dickie's clothes. Paradoxical is also a the way it makes us feel as spectators: we end up wishing that Ripley will not be caught just to satisfy the curiosity of understanding where his amorality leads us.
In addition to inviting us to once again enter Tom Ripley's universe, the greatest triumph of this series is, without a doubt, the aesthetic-visual effect achieved with the choice of black and white, a beautiful photography and very well filmed and linked sequences (the boat sequence is perfect), which accentuates the atmosphere of suspense and mystery, inevitably transporting us to Hitchcock's films.
In the last part we are surprised by the appearance of John Malkovich, who played Tom Ripley in RIPLEY'S GAME (Liliana Cavani, 2002), in what we can consider a brief homage to the previous films. It's such a shame that the song we hear in the distance, in part VII, is not a fragment of "Tu vuò fà l'americano" (who doesn't remember Matt Damon and Jude Law making this song memorable, in Anthony Minghella's version, from 1999?).