SummarySet in the 1960s, con man Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) is hired to go to Italy to bring the wealthy man's son home to New York in Steve Zaillian's eight-part limited series based on Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley novels.
SummarySet in the 1960s, con man Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) is hired to go to Italy to bring the wealthy man's son home to New York in Steve Zaillian's eight-part limited series based on Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley novels.
Black and white might make “Ripley” seem colder from the outside, but it’s actually just more cinematically immersive, plunging you uncomfortably close to a psyche that feels unnervingly unstable. And Scott is a true tour de force of a disheartened character, so superficially cool and assured on the surface, it’s all just a performance, on top of a performance trying to mask the things underneath that are almost too much to bear.
By toning down the glamour in his mesmerizing adaptation, Zaillian heightens these unsettling questions. His is the darkest Ripley yet, lonelier and darker even than Highsmith’s, and deeper, too.
Zaillian’s telling may not feel as intensely alive as Minghella’s, but the cool disposition he brings to Ripley’s cynical, self-serving brutality — all so he can lead an empty life that only looks rich — speaks to the story’s sneakiest interpretation: the dangers of the disillusioned white man. And isn’t that the most dangerous animal of all?
A picturesque portrait of a serial killer, this is less romance-with-a-sting-in-its-tail than it is pure sting. Its gloomy tone won’t suit everyone, but it’s rare to see film noir this exquisitely crafted on TV.
Other than unnecessarily elongating the story and filming it in black and white, Netflix’s adaptation does nothing to improve on the Oscar-nominated film that already exists.
And though Scott isn’t exactly Ripley, his approach to scenes is so weird and idiosyncratic that he often makes the performance work on its own terms. Still, there’s no getting past the flatness of this series, the dead air between exchanges of dialogue and the overall feeling of grimness. “Ripley” is neither Highsmith nor a plausible substitute. If anything, it’s a missed opportunity.