Particularly considering the hype surrounding The Talented Mr. Ripley, I still have trouble believing this is the same thought-provoking material that originally surfaced in Patricia Highsmith's fictional creations. This "adapted" world that Anthony Minghella has created more closely resembles fragments on the cutting room floor of The English Patient --another of his overindulged contributions to the American cinematography. While the two films focus on much different concepts, they drum up the same unauthentic feel, leaving any character-driven psychological depth to the viewers' own imaginations. In both pictures, the majority of the attention is fixed on the gorgeous scenery--which, to commend Minghella, is captured brilliantly--and far too little attention to digging up what's lurking beneath it. Viewers are left swirling in the wind that sits on the screen for ten minutes too long.

In Ripley, Minghella invites us to view the world of Dickie Greenleaf and Marge Sherwood--played by the gorgeous Jude Law (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) and Gweneth Paltrow (Shakespeare In Love)--a world upon which Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) trespasses and destroys. The viewer knows, from the story's inception, that this destruction is inevitable: the only suspense here is how long it takes for the destruction to begin. It is a good hour before Ripley strikes and the movie actually sees some motion. From this point on, the movie has the potential to look further into Ripley's twisted demise, but unfortunately, it does nothing of the sort. Instead, Ripley races around Italy like any other criminal running from his crimes.

Minghella does manage to throw in some interesting supporting characters to the mix including the truly talented Philip Seymour Hoffman (Boogie Nights, Patch Adams), who also shines in another holiday blockbuster, Magnolia. Hoffman breathes life into every scene he enters as does the subtlety intriguing Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth). A very interesting trio for the main three would have been combining Law with Hoffman as Ripley, and Blanchett as his Marge. This would eliminate the Damon problem: an actor too polished and sure of himself to carry off Ripley, although he does invest his whole self in the role and reaches greater depths than he has in his previous work. Not to mention the Paltrow predicament: she resembles the self she offers on talk shows and articles, possibly suggesting she is too damn tired from working so much this year to dig beyond the real Gweneth.

This film definitely needed to do something to help it from its tired, slow moving agenda. I found myself as disconnected from Tom Ripley at the end as I did at the beginning. And I barely cared whether he killed anyone else or was killed himself. As long as I didn't have to watch anymore, I was ready to applaud for the one who came out on top.