Ripley's Game [DVD] [2003]

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Product Description ------------------- Three years after walking off with millions of dollars’ worth of forged Renaissance drawings, Tom Ripley (John Malkovich) has settled into a life of culture and opulence in Italy. One night however, Ripley finds his complacency disturbed when he overhears himself insulted by Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott), a terminally ill ex-pat. While any ordinary sociopath might settle for a mild act of retribution, the game Ripley devises is far subtler – and infinitely more sinister. An unwelcome visit from a former criminal protégé offers Ripley his chance for revenge. Reeves (Ray Winstone) has eveolved from a small-time thug into a powerful underworld figure and has now come back to ask his one-time mentor for help. The Russian mafia is moving in on his turf in Berlin and Reeves needs someone completely unconnected with criminal circles to assassinate a brutal Moscow gang boss. Ripley declines to take on the job himself but suggests an ideal candidate: a dying man with little to lose and an urgent need to secure the financial security of his wife, Sarah (Lena Headley) and young son … .co.uk Review ------------- Ripley's Game is a well-appointed star vehicle in which the slippery protagonist of The Talented Mr Ripley returns in another deadly guise. The star this time is John Malkovich, whose older Tom Ripley has settled into an Italian villa and a life of aesthetic contemplation (a little like Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal). A former partner (Ray Winstone) drags an innocent frame-maker (Dougray Scott), dying of leukaemia, into the role of unexpected hit man. Ripley, for his own enigmatic reasons, helps. Liliana Cavani, of The Night Porter notoriety, directed this handsome if nebulous film (which has no connection to the Matt Damon picture ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004U419/${0} ), other than a Patricia Highsmith source novel ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/0099283689/${0} )). Malkovich exudes his usual oily disenchantment with the world; Lena Headey, like the location footage, is gorgeous. The same novel was adapted in very different style by Wim Wenders for his brilliant 1977 film, The American Friend ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009KP1D/${0} ), with Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz. --Robert Horton