A Practice in Mindfulness: The Talented Mr. Ripley

Let me be upfront...I haven't actually seen THAT many movies.

DON'T JUDGE ME

Before I started this movie gig lol

I will always, unapologetically, consider myself a reader before a watcher, but having enjoyed a lot of both in recent years, I realize I love art. No matter what form it takes.

So I've been on a quest to see as many movies as I can, rewatching some I've seen, experiencing some for the first time...

I fully believe we're becoming a consumption society. We're losing the thread of mindfulness about what we've consumed. Just unthinkingly going from one video, one book, one movie to the next without sitting with ourselves and thinking about what we've just experienced.

I'm making efforts to change that. It is a struggle. I've found ways to combat mindless scrolling through streaming platforms to find the perfect movie. (I've been using THIS random movie generator to pick a movie for me & without clicking until I get one I want, I go with the suggestion if I can find it for free)

Next step: asking myself 'what did I think of it?' and consciously avoiding rushing to assign a rating before truly reflecting on the experience, fostering mindful viewing.

So this brings me to my viewing of The Talented Mr. Ripley.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

I liked it.

I think I enjoy Matt Damon playing this type of character…where he’s unnerving in his smile and stare. Casting two “pretty boys”: Damon & Jude Law make the movie that much creepier, in my estimation, because it made you feel icky. Here you have these two, in all accounts, perfect-looking men who are the definition of window dressing because you can feel the slime underneath the façade. The smiles are held too long; you can feel something grotesque in the most benign conversations. Slowly, the interactions start to make your skin crawl, and you desperately want out of this movie, but can’t look away at the same time.

Matt Damon & Jude Law are unnervingly beautiful in 'The Talented Mr. Ripley.'

And I know it seems cut and dry that Damon Ripley is just a semi-closeted homosexual, but I would almost liken him to Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. Bill wasn’t a transsexual (psychologists rejected that theory of him), but it was as if he were jealous of transsexuals. He couldn’t just BE one, he had to wear the skin of one. Same for Damon’s Ripley, in my opinion. He was clearly attracted to these men (Law and Jack Davenport…I mean, how could one NOT be?), but more than just being with these men, he wanted to BE these men. He didn’t just long for their embrace, but he wanted to crawl around inside their skin as well. He was an empty vessel looking for someone to leech from, in more ways than just money and affection.

The Talented Mr. Ripley: 4/5