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Tom decides to abandon his assignment, come clean about why he was sent over, and insert himself into Dickie and Marge’s life like the leech that he is. The premise of the show is identical to that of Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley, which featured a trifecta of movie star performances — the movie served as a sort-of landmark moment in the careers of Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow — alongside classy Hitchcockian thrills. Created and directed by the legendary Oscar-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian, the eight-part Netflix series is a different beast altogether.

Dakota Fanning as Marge Sherwood and Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley in Ripley. (Photo: Netflix)

While the movie presented a younger Tom, a Tom who was just beginning to explore his criminal (and sexual) identity, the show’s version of the character is a more seasoned criminal — he’s an interloper and an impersonator of the first order. The two actors, on the other hand, couldn’t have more opposing on-screen energies. Damon is a movie star with a capital M, which means that he has an irrepressible charm, and an inherent vulnerability that can almost scientifically extract the audience’s empathy. Even when he’s playing someone as unsavoury as Tom Ripley, you want to give the character the benefit of the doubt; you can’t help but wonder who hurt him. Scott, on the other hand, has a more shifty presence. The charms of his Ripley aren’t natural, but put-on. You lean in not because you’re concerned, but because of a morbid curiosity. It’s a tremendous performance, one that comes mere months after his similarly monumental work in All of Us Strangers.

The show isn’t so much about the cause and effect of Ripley’s crimes as it is about the methodical, often painstakingly detailed process with which those crimes are perpetrated. For instance, before he fakes his first chance encounter with Dickie on the beach, we watch Tom trace his whereabouts, observe him from a distance, and even purchase a swimming costume to ‘sell’ the scene. Never is this detail-oriented approach — and frankly, this is the show’s signature — more apparent than in the two mid-season episodes in which Tom finds himself with dead bodies to dispose of.

But as meticulous as Ripley’s machinations might seem — this is, after all, a show in which the act of climbing stairs is giving the sort of importance that one would reserve to summiting Everest — his worst crimes are always committed on the spur of the moment. Ripley is less a mastermind and more a master of covering up. He might seem two steps ahead of everybody else, but the best parts of the show are the ones that tell us how he gained this advantage.

These elaborate, darkly comic sequences unfold in the immediate aftermath of murder. When Ripley bludgeons Dickie to death in the middle of the sea, you’d expect a quick getaway is in order. Admittedly, a different show would’ve swiftly moved on, terrified of allowing the pace to slacken. But Ripley dances to its own music; the show creates a new sort of tension in the next 20-odd minutes, as Tom attempts to drown Dickie’s body and destroy the evidence. Later, when he kills another person, a glorious sequence involving a faulty elevator, a sea of Fiats, and multiple taxi rides unfolds with a similarly rapturous rhythm. It’s a masterclass in foreshadowing, set-up and payoff, and tonal clarity.

Andrew Scott as Tom Ripley in Ripley. (Photo: Netflix)

The final two episodes are procedurals unto themselves, as the wily Inspector Ravini engages Tom in a cat-and-mouse chase across Rome, Palermo, and finally, Venice. It’s a basic observation to make, but one that needs to be made nonetheless: much of Ripley is shot on location in Italy, and there’s no overstating how deeply impactful this is to its success. Most productions these days couldn’t be bothered to step outside the studio floor. What Zaillian has achieved here, thanks in no small part to Oscar-winner Robert Elswit’s glistening black-and-white visuals, is truly spectacular — flashy without being boastful, opulent but not ostentatious.

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It would be interesting to know just how much of the show’s overall run time is pure silent cinema. But despite the lack of dialogue — the 1999 film was fairly conventional in this regard — even the most minor of details is communicated efficiently. We know that Tom has taken a liking to Ferragamo loafers, we’re constantly aware about the stolen ring on his finger, we’re also privy to his mindset when he’s by himself. It’s not a pleasant place to be. His sexual orientation, which was considerably more pronounced in the movie, is treated with a little more distance in the show — a wise choice, given the dangers of collating queerness with criminality. But by casting non-binary actor Eliot Sumner in the role of Freddie Miles, and making Freddie the object of Tom’s jealousy, the show accentuates his queerness differently. And this is emblematic of Ripley as a whole — it’s an unmissable, rip-roaring masterpiece.

Ripley
Creator: Steven Zaillian
Cast: Andrew Scott, Johnny Flynn, Dakota Fanning, Eliot Sumner, Margherita Buy, Maurizio Lombardi
Rating: 5/5