‘RIPLEY’ Netflix Series Review - Con Games

Climbing staircases becomes an amusing, tedious routine in Steven Zaillian's Ripley. Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) ascends and descends several steps to meet Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn). Police officers do the same thing for their inquiries. What does it all mean? Does it signify something? You can take it as a suggestion that it takes too much work to scale the ladder of victory. Tom, after all, arduously, obsessively, carefully creates an intricate web of lies to trap all the characters in it. He is a con artist, but he is also hardworking. He huffs and puffs to lay down his path of deceit, though he never lets others catch him sweating. Tom remains as composed as Ripley's visual style. The camera is never shaky. It quietly observes the surroundings. Like Tom, the camera sees the water, the buildings, the gentle breeze - everything so sharply that you feel as if you are breathing the same air as the people on the screen. Hence, the show can often feel something along the lines of, say, The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy. The difference, of course, is that the locations in Ripley look more stunning than in The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy.

When you notice Tom initially, he looks unsure and unsteady. You sense he is empty from within. This man has lost his own identity. He has spent his lifetime pretending to be various individuals, which is why every emotion of his looks false, looks studied. Tom can expertly mimic anyone around him. He can also go one step further and change his entire personality. He, in other words, resembles a thespian. "Method actors" boast about going to extra lengths to wear someone else's identity (on the screen). Tom, too, puts in a lot of work to present himself as Dickie. This gives Scott the opportunity to show off his "acting skills." He presents Tom's internal and external transformation conspicuously, and effectively. Scott's performance here is his résumé, his job interview, and his showreel.

Since Tom is a scam artist, he quickly recognizes any scam occurring around him. Dickie notices a girl on the road and gives her money for the taxi. Tom, surprised by this gesture, asks Dickie why he couldn't understand he was being tricked. Dickie is innocent and rich, and Tom exploits him for his own benefit. Marge (Dakota Fanning), Dickie's girlfriend, and Freddie (Eliot Sumner), a friend, clearly see Tom for what he is. They warn Dickie about him. Even Dickie's father (Kenneth Lonergan) informs Dickie about Tom's nefarious intentions when he realizes Tom is feeding him lies for money. Alas, Dickie suffers because of his innocence. He becomes friends with a rat, who soon brings to his door a vermin.

Tom triumphs because of his cunning personality. It should be noted that Tom is an artist. He is introduced as someone who writes fake letters to get people's money. Yet, he proves himself to be a capable advisor/editor when he provides notes for Marge's book. He also starts painting nicely after admiring the work of other artists (Tom appreciates a human pyramid, while Dickie dismisses it by saying that the men are "fairies"). I was not convinced by these skills. Then again, it might all be Ripley's way of telling us that all good artists are frauds. They cheat (and win) by feeding you lies, and fantasy. Tom succeeds because, for a long time, he manages to make everybody believe that Dickie is alive. What's more, life imitates art in one of the episodes, when Tom takes inspiration from a painting for his meeting with Inspector Pietro Ravini (Maurizio Lombardi).

The black-and-white images of Ripley are gorgeous, not empty. Scenes like Tom and Freddie's first conversation are shot like a confrontation (you think they will shoot each other at any moment). The violence, though, is so intense you flinch. The sounds of characters getting hit feel so real you almost look away from the screen. There is one moment in particular that left me motionless in my seat. It's the one where the blades of a boat come very near to Tom's lower body. The things that happen to Tom before this moment can be labeled instant karma. It feels as if Dickie's ghost is moving the boat before leaving for the afterlife.

When Tom initially comes to Italy, he is confused due to his lack of familiarity with the language, and the setting. By the end, he becomes extremely comfortable in his new-found skin. All that running from hotel to hotel, wiping blood from the staircase and elevator, finally ends up reaping many rewards for this con artist. Life would have been a bit easier for Tom if he knew swimming, as that boat would have disappeared entirely from sight. It's one of the many amusing aspects of this series. Most of the humor is derived from the fact that apart from Tom, no one else knows when they are referring to Tom and when to Dickie. The humor, however, doesn't make Tom likable or appealing. He receives our hatred from the beginning. You observe him closely because you wait for him to slip. The camera will often show you something like a suitcase under a bed or a blood print, leading you to expect that these things will bring Tom's truth to light. But the characters are preoccupied with themselves, make shallow judgments, or treat themselves with too much respect. Hence, the truth easily slips past them. The real champion in this world turns out to be someone who is cautious, ambitious, and knows how to exploit a situation. Let's see if Tom will remain a winner in a potential second season.

Final Score- [7.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times