Gwyneth Paltrow: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Marge Sherwood - The Talented Mr. Ripley

Although it completely misunderstands the point of its central character, Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley does boast some good performances. Nothing to rival Oscar Isaac and Viggo Mortensen in the vastly superior Patricia Highsmith adaptation The Two Faces Of January, but enough to make it watchable. Matt Damon does homosexual psychopath with subtlety (even if Tom Ripley isn't gay, or crazy) and Jude Law is at his smarmy best. Letting the central trio down is Paltrow, whose Marge is little more than a rather unimpactful love interest/token good guy. There's nothing to Miss Sherwood that hasn't been seen in every thriller with an innocent blonde. A character extrapolated to be more active in the plot than in print, some of the blame lies in the script, but Paltrow does little to elevate it.