Ripley's Game (film)

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Ripley’s Game is a 2002 thriller directed by Liliana Cavani and based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name. John Malkovich plays Tom Ripley, with Dougray Scott and Ray Winstone also starring.

Plot in simple terms:
- In Berlin, Ripley teams up with a British gangster named Reeves for an art-forgery scheme. When Reeves cheats him, Ripley forces Reeves to pay him back, ends the partnership, and gets away with the money.
- Three years later, Ripley lives in a villa in Veneto with his wife, Luisa. A neighbor insults him, and later Reeves asks Ripley to kill a rival mobster.
- Reeves suggests Trevanny, a dying art framer who wants money for his wife and son. Trevanny goes to Berlin and kills the mobster, but struggles with more killings. Reeves pressures him, and Ripley helps Trevanny kill a mobster on a moving train.
- Back home, mobsters come to Italy seeking revenge. Reeves is killed, and Ripley, with Trevanny’s help, fights off the attackers at Ripley’s villa.
- Trevanny sacrifices himself to save Ripley’s wife, Sarah. Ripley tries to give Trevanny’s share of the money to Sarah, but she rejects him. Ripley attends his wife Luisa’s concert that night and briefly smiles at Trevanny’s memory.

Locations and production:
- The film was shot at two Palladian villas in Italy (one in Asolo and Villa Emo in Fanzolo) and other places in Vicenza, Padua, Bassano del Grappa, and Berlin.

Reception:
- Critics generally liked Ripley’s Game. It has a 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert named it one of his Great Movies and praised Malkovich’s performance. Rolling Stone gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars. Some reviewers were less impressed, such as The Guardian with two stars, and some compared it unfavorably with Wim Wenders’ The American Friend.