9 Films That Completely Ignored Their Source (And Sucked Because Of It)
3. The Talented Mr Ripley Simplifies A Complex Character
When Anthony Minghellas The Talented Mr Ripley worked its way to relative success back in 1999, Empire Magazine was quick to dismiss Patricia Highsmiths source novel as pure pulp fiction. To do that completely misunderstands the complex character study taking place in her five novel Ripliad. Although you cant really fault Ian Nathan on that, given its the film thats messing up. For my money theres only one film that captures the relatable amorality of the novel character. Purple Noon, a 1960 Italian adaptation, came before the book's sequels so effectively changed Toms story to give him an ending. However, pretty much all the later adaptations most notably the Matt Damon starring, Oscar nominated version really messed up. Throughout the book series Tom Ripley is always hard to grasp; in later novels he has a wife, yet treats in a totally asexual manner; he despises killing, yet commits murder with such straight faced methodology; we hear all his thoughts through the third person narrative, yet still never know how he feels. Obviously some of these elements will be lost in adaptation, which is the case in most of the films, but in Minghellas instead he just simplified them; Ripley is bisexual and driven by a simple logic. The film ends up being pure, if well shot, pulp fiction, while the books are so much more.
