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"Malkovich... a more talented Mr. Ripley"

Posted by clarkjohnsen (R) on December 12, 2003 at 08:17:25

[ALERT! This runs Saturday at 10PM on IFC.]

Malkovich demonstrates he's a more talented Mr. Ripley

By Ty Burr, Boston Globe Staff, 12/12/2003

As a fan of John Malkovich -- he of the light-bulb head, gracious manners, and all-knowing depravity -- I've been waiting for that one performance that would pull the actor's errant talents into focus. In ''Ripley's Game,'' he delivers that performance, or comes as close as an intriguing but imperfect movie will allow. So why didn't ''Ripley'' make it to movie theaters? Why did this better-than-average thriller with its Mephistophelian central role fall through the cracks of distribution and wind up getting a burn-off run on cable's Independent Film Channel? Rumors are that the causes are deal-related (with the film's Euro-TV funding falling through, goes the argument, a US theatrical run suddenly became more costly to promote than it would have been worth), but if anyone at Fine Line Features knows, they ain't talking.

In the meantime, the film has had quiet airdates on IFCTV since September, including one tomorrow at 10 p.m. My one word of advice is: Pounce.

Yes, this is the same sociopathic Tom Ripley who murdered his best friend and subsumed his identity in the 1999 film ''The Talented Mr. Ripley.'' That was Matt Damon, and this is now. Based on the third of the five Ripley novels by the late Patricia Highsmith, ''Game'' finds Tom middle-aged, settled, and a little too complacent in his swank villa in Veneto, Italy. He's married to a lovely, decorative harpsichord player of a wife (Chiara Caselli) and makes his living dealing in art forgery -- or, rather, art forgery is what allows him to live the life of genteel truffle-sniffing he once was quite happy to kill for.

''Game'' is the story of how Ripley gets pulled back into homicide with a peeved sigh. Slighted at a dinner party by Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott), a down-at-his-heels local picture framer, Ripley stews and stews, until he discovers that Jonathan is dying from leukemia. At about the same time, a past accomplice, Reeves (Ray Winstone), reappears at his door, seeking an untraceable gunman for a gangland hit. Ever resourceful, Tom puts the two together, offering to pay for the dying man's treatment if Jonathan will do just one little execution. Or two.

Jonathan is properly horrified until he realizes that the job's pay will go to his widow and children; even so, he makes a fretful, hapless assassin. Understanding that if you want to do something well you have to do it yourself, Tom steps in to offer a guiding hand during a gruesomely comic melee on a trans-Europe train. An odd kinship is struck: Jonathan finds himself fully living as he fades away, while Ripley is moved by one of the very few human connections he has made.

Fans of arthouse classics will recognize this as the plot of Wim Wenders' 1977 ''The American Friend,'' in which Dennis Hopper played Ripley and Bruno Ganz the reluctant killer. If ''Friend'' is farther from Highsmith than ''Game,'' it remains the better film -- director Liliana Cavani (''The Night Porter'') keeps the new film moving with elegant panache but never touches the depths Wenders achieved.

Malkovich, however, is a malevolent joy. The actor lacks the conventional good looks to convince you he could be an older version of Damon's Ripley -- some may consider this an improvement -- but he summons the character's epicene can-do superiority with ease. This Ripley is an uncanny fusion of what's best in Malkovich and in Highsmith; when the character calmly says to Jonathan, ''Hold my watch, because if it breaks I'll kill everyone on this train,'' you know he's not remotely kidding. Yet there's a weariness to Tom that's touching, no more so than when he watches Jonathan with his wife (Lena Headey) and senses all that he will never know.

Scott is brittle and sympathetic, and Winstone is a blurt of vicious good cheer as the hood, but this is the star's show, and Malkovich knows it. Barry Pepper will play a younger version of the character in next year's ''White on White,'' based on Highsmith's second novel in the series, but too late -- Ripley has at last been well and truly captured on film. ''Ripley's Game'' will also air on Dec. 26 at 8 p.m., and during middle-of-the-night slots throughout the rest of the month. Ladies and gentlemen: start your TiVos.

(''Ripley's Game''; Directed by Lillana Cavani; Starring John Malkovich, Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone, Lena Headey; On the Independent Film Channel, various dates starting tomorrow at 10 p.m.; Rated R .)

Ty Burr can be reached at tburr@globe.com.

This story ran on page E9 of the Boston Globe on 12/12/2003.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

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