8 Most Divisive Parts Of Netflix’s Ripley Adaptation That’ve Split Audiences & Critics

Netflix’s Ripley has received mixed reviews, with critics and fans both divided over some elements of the crime drama. Based on The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, Ripley follows a con artist as he travels from New York to Italy and becomes obsessed with an old acquaintance. This obsession takes a dark turn, and Tom Ripley soon leads the Italian police on a twisty chase across the country. Andrew Scott stars as the sociopathic fraudster, with Johnny Flynn, Dakota Fanning, Eliot Sumner and Maurizio Lombardi in supporting roles.

There are a few key factors which make Ripley quite unlike anything else Netflix has produced, from its black and white aesthetic to its glacial pace. These factors have contributed to Ripley‘s inconsistent critical reception. The other big reason for this is the bold choices Ripley makes in adapting Highsmith’s work. This has proven controversial among readers and fans of other adaptations, particularly the 1999 movie starring Matt Damon. There are good reasons for all of Ripley‘s stylistic choices, but it faces a tough challenge to be judged on its own terms.

8

Ripley Being Entirely In Black & White

The monochrome aesthetic has its pros and cons

Ripley is undoubtedly one of the most visually striking Netflix shows of all time, with a bold black and white palette that immediately makes it stand out from most other modern TV shows. However, the monochrome aesthetic can be off-putting for some viewers. Ripley‘s black and white look has been criticized by some fans of Patricia Highsmith’s novel and other movie adaptations for ignoring the aspirational aspects of Dickie’s life. Dickie lives a charmed life in a sun-drenched Italian coastal town, but it doesn’t seem so enviable without the warmth of color.

Of course, there are plenty of good reasons why Ripley doesn’t use color. The monochromatic palette highlights the angles of the beautiful architecture and the textures of certain objects. Tom is fascinated by symbols of wealth, so it makes sense for him to be drawn to the sleek shine of a glass ashtray and the dark viscosity of Italian wine. The black and white also illuminates Ripley‘s use of Caravaggio paintings, with the entire show replicating the chiaroscuro style of the Italian master. The entire show, visually and thematically, is about the interplay between light and shadow.

7

Ripley’s Slow Pacing

The eight episodes amount to the slowest of slow burns

Ripley may disappoint fans of the crime genre who were expecting a fast-paced thriller about a con artist working his way through Europe, but this adaptation is much more concerned with Tom’s psyche and decisions. By slowing things down, Ripley brings the audience into Tom’s shoes. He may start out as something of an enigma, but extended sequences of him ascending stone steps and mopping up blood highlight the mundanity of his actions. Tom may be a globe-trotting con man, but his day-to-day life resembles admin and busywork.

Ripley is no thrill ride. It prefers to slowly turn up the heat on its protagonist. Rather than a bombastic blow-out argument with the detective, Tom has to submit to a series of protracted interviews which revolve around minute details and barely perceptible discrepancies. The message is clear: Tom won’t escape his situation by running or fighting. He must be patient and savvy. There’s an intoxicating quality to the entire process of watching Tom think and rethink. This deliberate slowness also means that Ripley‘s violent death scenes carry much more weight, due to the sheer contrast.

6

Comparisons To Matt Damon’s The Talented Mr. Ripley

The 1999 movie was a critical and commercial success

Many people have been drawn to Netflix’s Ripley because of the 1999 movie starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, rather than the novel itself by Patricia Highsmith. Comparisons between the Netflix series and the movie were always inevitable, but they are separate works with separate goals. The movie may be more aspirational, more charming and more inviting, but Ripley isn’t trying to compete on any of these fronts. Instead, it aims to provide a more intoxicating and opaque adaptation of the novel.

Ripley differs from the Matt Damon movie in many ways, but this makes it a more faithful adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel. While the movie invents several characters, the Netflix series largely sticks to what is on the page. It would be hard for any series to replicate the good looks and charisma of the movie’s cast, and the sun-soaked Italian backdrop has a beauty all of its own, but Ripley shows that there is more than one way to interpret Highsmith’s work. It shouldn’t be compared directly to the movie, because it has different goals.

5

Andrew Scott’s Tom Ripley Performance & Characterization

Andrew Scott plays Tom as less charming and more deranged

Andrew Scott’s portrayal of Tom Ripley has earned him plenty of praise, but just as much criticism. Taking on a popular character inevitably comes with direct comparisons to other actors who have played the same role, and people will have their own favorite Tom Ripley, whether that’s Matt Damon, Alain Delon, or someone else. In contrast to these other actors, Scott’s Tom Ripley is much less affable. He’s a slimy sociopath who somehow manages to ingratiate himself with Dickie Greenleaf. Their friendship doesn’t seem extremely natural in Ripley.

Scott’s Tom Ripley is cold-blooded and violent. A career of forging signatures and falsifying documents in New York has given him just enough insincere geniality to skate by, but Marge, Freddie and Inspector Ravini don’t have to work hard to see beyond his flimsy charade. Scott’s version of Tom Ripley comes across as altogether unlikable, and this makes him harder to root for. With so much of the show’s time spent with Tom by himself, this has made Ripley a challenging watch for some critics and fans alike.

4

Eliot Sumner’s Performance As Freddie Miles

Eliot Sumner changes Freddie’s role in the story

Tom Scott isn’t the only actor whose performance has come under scrutiny in Ripley. Eliot Sumner plays Freddie Miles, a good friend of Dickie and Marge who invites the couple to spend Christmas with him. Freddie later confronts Tom in Rome at the apartment which he believes is being rented by Dickie. Sumner shares as much on-screen chemistry with Johnny Flynn, who plays Dickie, as they do with Andrew Scott, that is to say very little. However, this only highlights the vapid nature of their upper-class social world. Their friendships are based on wealth and circumstance, rather than real compatibility.

Eliot Sumner’s performance in Ripley has been criticized for an apparent lack of warmth, and this could be another way in which the Netflix series suffers from comparisons to the 1999 movie. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley, and his friendship with Jude Law’s Dickie Greenleaf comes across authentically. Freddie is a fun-loving cad in the movie. Tom still hates him, as he does in the Netflix series, but there’s an added sense that he’s jealous of his status, wealth, and personality. Eliot Sumner’s Freddie is just a pest who Tom needs to swat away.

3

Ripley’s Characters Lack Sexual Energy

Patricia Highsmith’s Freudian characterization makes The Talented Mr. Ripley More Captivating

One of the most compelling undercurrents of The Talented Mr. Ripley is the enigma of Tom’s sexuality. Different adaptations have approached this ambiguity in different ways, but Netflix’s Ripley pays very little attention to this side of Tom’s character. In the novel, his fascination with Dickie is tinged with undertones of Freudian psychosexual obsession. Tom may want to become Dickie because this is the only outlet he can find for his feelings of lust. By wearing his clothes and using his belongings, Tom can act out a perverse fantasy about owning Dickie in some way.

Tom’s story continues after the events of Ripley, and he marries a woman in Patricia Highsmith’s follow-up novel. However, this marriage is as much about status and wealth as it is about romance. There are plenty of hints that Tom is repressing his true sexuality. Without this element of Tom’s character, Ripley is a little safer and a little less compelling than it could be. But Tom isn’t the only character who seems void of any sexual feeling. Dickie and Marge’s relationship is never truly convincing, and part of the reason for this is their lack of any real physical intimacy.

2

The Age Of The Characters

Tom, Dickie, Marge and Freddie are much younger in the novel

One of the most immediately obvious changes Ripley makes to the novel is that the characters are much older in the Netflix series. Whereas Tom and Dickie are in their 20s in the novel, the Netflix series makes them much older. Andrew Scott and Johnny Flynn are both in their 40s. This presents a few problems for Ripley. The idea that Dickie’s parents would be so concerned about him makes sense if he is a recent college graduate lacking a sense of direction, but it doesn’t scan quite as smoothly if he graduated from college roughly 20 years ago.

The ages of the characters in Ripley makes some of their relationships seem unusual. Dakota Fanning and Eliot Sumner are both much younger than Johnny Flynn, and they don’t look as if they would realistically be moving in the same social circles. Putting these logical hurdles to one side, aging Tom changes his character in a major way that Ripley never truly addresses. Rather than being an ambitious grifter willing to grasp what he wants in the world, Ripley‘s protagonist is middle-aged, and this changes how his evolution reads on-screen.

1

Inspector Ravini’s Role

The detective angle bring the film noir elements of Ripley to the fore

Inspector Ravini is given a big role in the later episodes of Ripley, and this is one of the key ways in which the series deviates from the novel. Maurizio Lombardi is one of the outstanding performers in the cast of Ripley. He plays the Italian detective with determination, focus, and the perfect amount of weariness. Ravini seems as though he has seen and heard it all before, right up until Ripley‘s shocking ending reveals the depths of his ignorance. Despite Lombardi’s intensely watchable performance, Ripley has been criticized for focusing so heavily on the detective.

With its film noir aesthetic and its period setting, Ripley develops into a detective mystery with ease. However, reducing the plot of a serpentine con artist to a police drama is fairly simplistic. It’s important to see the law closing in on Tom, but Lombardi is such a scene-stealing presence that he threatens to take over the show. The one element of his character that is hard to believe is that he doesn’t see through Tom’s shoddy disguise in Venice. This is possibly the single most divisive moment in Ripley, and one that threatens to break the suspension of disbelief in an otherwise engrossing drama.