The Movie:

Yes, it all starts with borrowing a jacket. Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), a lonely piano tuner at Princeton is mistaken for a Princeton student. Herbert Greenleaf is a wealthy industrialist whose son Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) has disappeared to Italy. Herbert, thinking that Ripley is a friend of his son's, hires Ripley to go to Italy, find his son, and convince him to return to New York. What follows is a seemingly endless series of twists and turns caused by Ripley's "talents" at impersonation and forgery, and his desire to go beyond his lot in life. If you are a fan of suspenseful movies full of plot twists and tension, you will love The Talented Mr. Ripley.

I did have a few issues with it though... first of all, the whole "period" thing didn't work out for me, and was actually confusing to me at first. This movie is set in the 50's, and though they did make some efforts to make it appear so. Perhaps it was the hairstyles, or maybe it was the timelessness of the old Italian settings... then again, maybe it was the language -- but something about it kept bringing me back to the present, and made me have to keep reminding myself that it's supposed to be the 50's.

The beginning of the movie started out interestingly enough, and things continued to get interesting through the middle of the film... followed by some of the best suspense I've ever seen in a movie. I haven't felt such tension from a movie in quite some time. And then... well, the movie went on too long and got a little tooconvoluted for my tastes. Oh well.

Overall, I'd rate The Talented Mr. Ripley an average movie, but if you are particularly interested in suspense/thriller movies with plenty of twists and turns, you will like this movie.

The DVD: This DVD sports a fabulous video transfer, clean and grainless, with some bold color as well. The 5.1 audio is clean, but the mix sometimes left something to be desired. Rich and vibrant in some parts (especially the sections dealing with musical performance in jazz clubs and opera houses), dull and flat in some others (particularly dialog in the beginning of the movie), with some surround effects thrown in.

Special features included two trailers (with very clean, though non-anamorphic transfers), cast/crew interviews which were separate from the making-of piece. There were also two music video sequences from the movie (both in jazz clubs, and unfortunately not with 5.1 sound), including "My Funny Valentine" which features a vocal performance by Matt Damon, and a "making of the soundtrack" featurette. Finally, there's a director's commentary track. It's a full boat!

If you loved this movie, then you'll love this DVD, as it does do a pretty fine job of presenting the film, with a pretty decent set of extras.