‘Ripley’the new adaptation of the famous novel by Patricia Highsmith ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ that has just been released by Netflix, It doesn’t seem like a common Netflix series: filmed in black and white, with a slow pace and an ambition that is more artistic than popular.. In fact, as its credits tell us, it is a series developed for Showtime, although after being filmed it was sold to the platform. It was that North American cable network that Steven Zaillian (creator of the outstanding series ‘The Night Of’ and screenwriter of titles such as ‘Schindler’s List’ or ‘Gangs of New York’) convinced to once again make an audiovisual version of the charismatic impostor of Highsmith, after the 1999 film with Matt Damon, which is perhaps the most remembered, and several others such as that of Alain Delon or that of John Malkovich.
What stands out in his proposal in its first bars is the dedication that Zaillian (who writes and directs the eight episodes) puts into observing with his camera in an endless number of detailed shots, initially in New York and then, accompanying Tom Ripley, in Italy, which They develop the narrative as if it were a detailed literary description through a spectacular photograph.. It might even seem like an exercise in artistic arrogance (he is accompanied by Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit) or that the filmmaker is more concerned with form than substance, but that is not the case. He does not forget, not even in the slightest, what should be the center and heart of the story about Ripley.
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For those who are not familiar with the story, Tom Ripley is a man who survives as best he can in New York—younger in the novel than in the series—until he receives an offer from a millionaire to travel to Italy, expenses paid, to convince his tarambana son to abandon the bohemian life in Europe and return home. Ripley will accept and look for Dickie and from there (we won’t go into any more spoilers because, although the story is well known, the first big twist in the narrative is reserved for the third episode) a plot of obsession, deception, mystery and crimes develops set in the sixties of the 20th century (although the novel was published in 1955).
The appeal of Ripley’s story It lies not only in what happens or in his charisma as a villain, but in whether he manages to get away with each misdeed. and continue committing crimes without the police catching him. And that is precisely where ‘Ripley’ displays its talent, being able to generate a lot of tension (for me, in particular, the propeller of the third episode made me look away from the screen or had me restless throughout the fifth). All that spectacular photography, that observant direction, the visual metaphors (those stairs and then the elevator…) and its slow cooking rhythm make sense as the series progresses and its pieces fit together.
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Also, a great incarnation of Ripley by Andrew Scott, who once again demonstrates his interpretive versatility by filling an a priori undaunted character with subtleties, but of whom traumas, terrors and weaknesses are glimpsed when he finds himself against the ropes, either because of a confrontational phrase from Dickie or because of some detail that could incriminate him. And even though he is a morally reprehensible character, he easily puts us in his pocket and turns us into his accomplices, not only for witnessing his most notable criminal movements, but for meticulously accompanying him in the smallest processes, such as the falsification of documents or their financial stratagems.
In that sense, there is no feeling with ‘Ripley’ that we are facing what could be a two-hour film stretched into eight-hour footage to turn it into a miniseries, but rather that This extra time fits perfectly with the episodic formula and is dedicated to filling the story with nuances. and they are details that instill beauty, but also with narrative meaning. Thus, it remains a rare bird on Netflix, more typical of other times of the platform in which it dared with more authorial things. But, fortunately, not everything can be a generic series with blockbuster intentions like ‘The Night Agent’; Nor is the artistic at odds with the exciting, of course. Because ‘Ripley’ may require patience, yes, but it more than returns what was invested.
Score 8/10
The series of… lovers of Italy and the good life with an upset moral compass
You’ll like it if… you have a devotion to magnetic criminals
It’s not for you if… you don’t have a little patience
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Series reviews and analysis
I was born on Wisteria Lane, I was roommates with Hannah Horvath, and ‘Chicago’ drove me crazy because Roxie Hart is me. I have a sharp tongue, but, as Lola Flores said, “they had to give me a subsidy for joy.”
