January 7 2000

RONICLE

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The talented Mr. Damon

· It's a kick seeing Matt Damon play a gay character,

even a murderer

by Denny Sampson

Young, good-looking movie stars face a certain amount of prejudice if they are male. In the Brad/Tom/Keanu world of Hollywood film casting, most people assume they can't act. Once

again, Matt Damon breaks out of that ste-

reotype with his brilliant portrayal of an amoral but strangely likable gay psychopath in The Talented Mr. Ripley, released on Christmas Day.

Damon plays Tom Ripley, an insecure young man who has a talent for forging signatures, lying, and mimicking others. Ripley meets Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn), a wealthy New York ship builder, who offers Ripley $1,000 to go to Italy and persuade his son Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) to return to the states. As the two young men meet and become friends, Ripley falls for Dickie, and for his

playboy lifestyle. Later, as the plot takes a sinister turn, Ripley pretends to be Dickie and spends Greenleaf's allowance while living in Italy. Tom Ripley's philoso phy: it is better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.

"Is he going to get away with it?" That question is central to the film's suspense as Ripley's lies begin to catch up with him. And I, for one, identified so strongly with Tom Ripley's motivations that I wanted him to get away with it.

Matt Damon's performance is exceptional, and worthy of another Oscar nod. He is totally convincing as the nerdish but charming Ripley, yet equally convincing in the next scene as Ripley's impersonation of the sophisticated, self-confident Dickie. Damon's portrayal of a killer who remained sympathetic, believable, and at times frightening throughout the film was quite an achievement. The director had Ralph Fiennes in mind for the role. Fortunately, he had other commitments.

Jude Law's portrayal of the narcissistic hedonist Dickie Greenleaf, who won Ripley's heart, was extremely effective, as well. Law's character reminded me of an exboyfriend of mine easy to fall in love with, and then easy to hate.

Gwyneth Paltrow plays Dickie's girlfriend; Marge Sherwood, a young innocent girl totally unsuspecting of Dickie's philanderings and Ripley's emotional instability. Although the role was written with Paltrow in mind, the character is so two-dimensional that it is a waste of Paltrow's considerable talent.

Anthony Minghella directed the film and wrote the screenplay from Patricia Highsmith's novel. Minghella also directed The English Patient, but please don't hold that against The Talented Mr. Ripley.

In his latest work, Minghella has created a suspense film in the Hitchcock tradition, but it is not an ordinary thriller. The Talented Mr. Ripley is also a richly filmed romance, set on location in the lush, colorful landscape of Italy's countryside and filled with the atmosphere of rich Americans abroad. The film is set in the late 1950s, and Minghella's painstaking attention to the details of the period make the setting as fascinating and beautiful as the plot is captivating.

Don't be fooled by the trailer which deliberately misleads viewers to expect a romantic involvement between the Damon and Paltrow characters, no to give box office sales a boost. The talented Ripley is gay. Given its pre-Stonewall, pre-gay lib tion time period and Ripley's weak sense of probably isn't aware that he was gay. But th ambiguity in his choice of romantic partners talented Mr. Ripley is definitely gay. And I don know about anyone else, but I got an adolescent kic out of seeing the talented Mr. Damon plays aga character, even if he was a psychopathic murderer.

PHIL BRAY, PARAMOUNT

Tòm (Matt Damon, center) and Dickie (Jude Law, right) jump onto the stage in an Italian nightclub to join the singer (Rosario Fiorello).

There is no ambiguity in his

choice of romantic

partners. The

talented Mr. Ripley

is definitely gay.