Alrighty folks, here's a look at a VERY early test screening of THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY. Having read the script I can tell you that Minghella's material was superb, and here in this early test screening, the reviewer liked the film but had problems with the length of the film, the pacing of scenes... that sort of thing. Well... That's exactly why they screened the film. Undoubtedly this film will be trimmed significantly, fine tuned here and there. So this review should in NO WAY be used as a final judgement on the film, but merely as a look at the film in it's current work in progress state. Anthony "THE ENGLISH PATIENT" Minghella is a fantastic filmmaker and I have faith that this film which the following reviewer commends the performances and twists and turns will tighten up and be benefited by a score, which on this evening, it was without. Mark my words, this will be one of the KEY films to look for this fall/holiday season. Them folks at Miramax and Minghella know what they're doing. BEWARE, THE FOLLOWING REVIEW HAS SPOILERS WHICH CONCERN THE FIRST 3/4 of the movie. Read only at your own risk...

I attended a test screening of "The Talented Mr. Ripley," which is Anthony Minghella's latest film. It stars Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Cate Blanchett among others. The screening was last Monday night in San Rafael, CA. It was the first time the film had been shown to an audience, and was a very rough cut. Several folks in limos and suits were there...

Anyway, on to the film...SPOILERS BELOW!

THE PLOT:

Matt Damon plays Mr. Ripley, a poor scam-artist who goes to retrieve Dickie Greenleaf, the son of a rich American. Dickie is gallivanting about Europe, and his father would like Dickie to come back home to the good ol' USA. Ripley eventually locates Dickie, and the two of them seem to hit it off right away. They end up spending a lot of time hanging out, sailing, traveling, etc. The beautiful and charming Gwyneth Paltrow plays Marge Sherwood who is Dickie's girlfriend-become-fiancé. One would normally assume that Ripley would fall in love with Marge and this would cause a conflict between Ripley and Dickie. WRONG! Turns out Ripley is an obsessive homosexual, and ends up killing Dickie because Dickie rejects him for Marge. Ripley then takes on Dickie's identity, and goes around posing as Dickie. However, several people know that he is really Ripley, so Matt Damon has to constantly switch identities depending on who he is talking to. Ripley ends up killing Dickie's friend Freddie (great performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman) because Freddie figures out what happens. I won't say more than this...I don't want to give away the ending in complete detail (yes, believe it or not, the paragraph above is only about the first 2/3 of the film).

THE PERFORMANCES:

Across the board, they are all pretty strong. Damon plays a VERY convincing homosexual, even though he is fairly low-key about it. Jude Law is fairly new to the big screen, and he plays a very believable cloddish playboy.

THE PROBLEMS:

-Time! The roughcut was almost 3 hours long and unnecessarily so

-Timing! Some scenes took FOR EVER. Others went TOO FAST.

-Confusing! The opening 30 minutes are some of the most confusing minutes ever filmed! I literally had NO idea what was going on (and neither did the folks around me in the theater). As the story unfolded, I started to understand a little about the opening of the film, but still not much.

THE POSITIVES:

-The story is entertaining once it gets going. There is a shocking amount of blood in this film, and because there was no score to set the mood, it was often unpredictable. Several in the audience got up and left at a few points in the film.

-Great ending! Talk about an unconventional story--this one takes the cake!

That's all for now...this film is slated for a Fall 1999 release, so hopefully it will be improved upon between now and then...I know I filled my survey with tons of suggestions!

THE NOTORIOUS B.O.Z.