The movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley, based on the murder novel by Patricia Highsmith, was a great performance by Matt Damon, but an incredible story about how Tom Ripley manages to deceive and manipulate others around him, creating a facade that hides a serial killer. We were joined by Judge Miller, who gave us an insight on how criminal cases were conducted and how verdicts were made. He revealed that murder charges were based on the actions and intentions people act upon on, and asked us to determine whether Mr. Ripley would have been charged with 1st or 2nd degree murder. Mr. Ripley lacks entirely moral values but with his charm hides the exposition of his web of lies, impersonating others, and killing anyone that threatens to expose his secrets. As it is difficult to know the intentions of others, we were unsure, at the end of our discussion where to convict him in 1st or 2nd degree, yet this revealed the importance of criminal courts, and how we must trust those that we place in power to not be biased and only follow the rule of law.

The film co-stars included Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf, Gwyneth Paltrow as Dickie’s girlfriend Marge Sherwood, Cate Blanchett as Meredith Logue, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddie Miles.  Tom Ripley struggled to make a living in NY city in the 1950s, when he met the wealthy shipbuilder Herbert Greenleaf, who mistakenly believed Ripley attended Princeton with his son Dickie. Greenleaf hires Ripley to travel to Italy to convince his son Dickie to return home.  Instead, Ripley becomes infatuated with Dickie’s rich life style, impersonates him, and then kills him.  Through forgery Ripley arranges to live from Dickie’s allowance and when Dickie’s friend Freddie becomes suspicious, he kills him too. Ripley then plots by writing a suicide note to make believe the police that Dickie killed himself after he killed Freddie.  Mr. Greenfield travels to Italy and also believes the story of his son’s death, so he decides to leave Dickie’s trust fund to Ripley.  At the end, Ripley’s crimes come back hunting him, when Meredith who he met when impersonating Dickie, encounters him while traveling on a ship to Greece. To protect himself from being discovered Ripley kills his lover Peter.  Although, I am personally not a fan of murder movies or crime novels, the plot is entertaining as Ripley’s journey illustrates a man’s journey with deception and murders to improve his life.