Andrew Scott's performance becomes more and more impressive as the story progresses ; he often blows Johnny Flynn off the screen whereas ,in Minghella's movie ,it was the other way about ,Dickie-Law outstripping Ripley -Damon .
The most violent episode of the story ; although as far as the murder is concerned, the 1959 Clément 's "plein soleil " has technically the upper hand ,Scott makes us feel the hatred, the rancor against a sellfish boy who dismisses him like his father did before in a humiliating letter :it makes him feel like a servant , even though Dickie tells him it was a true friendship ; the pivotal sequence on the beach with the boys practising gymnastics tells it all (Highsmith depicts it but she makes no comment on their sexual orientation ) : "they are inverts" Dickie says,in a contemptous voice,and one has the strange feeling he fears he may be one of these friends of Dorothy .The "final solution" makes sense .The dolce vita's up.