While the movie started out slowly, I really came to be intrigued by the character of Tom Ripley. Throughout the film I felt myself questioning who he really was under the mask of his different impersonations. Along with that, what might have encouraged his fascination with personalities? An origin story for him would be extremely fascinating. At times you also really feel for Tom because he clearly has difficulties with social interaction, latching onto Dickie and often being happy to just be involved.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the night was the “trial” that we conducted as prosecutors and such. At first it seemed very obvious to me that the killing was really self defense. Dickie had initiated physical contact and had eventually threatened Tom’s life, not to mention the emotional stress that Tom was under. I was surprised to find that really only a few people championed the idea that it was solely self defense. Over the course of the discussion I kept having to reevaluate the scene and rethink what had happened, comparing it with the different degrees of murder/ manslaughter. I felt that this is really evident of how important multiple perspectives are in getting the full picture of anything. This is why juries exist, obviously, but it still stunned me just how much my perspective on it changed and had to be reanalyzed over the course of a few minutes. It was a really fun and surprising experience!