12 April 2024

Ripley

If you’ve seen the “glorious, sun-drenched” 1999 movie The Talented Mr Ripley, says Caryn James on the BBC website, you’ll be astonished at how Netflix has transformed the same story into something “completely different but just as masterful”. The plot, true to the Patricia Highsmith novel from which it’s adapted, is largely the same. A wealthy New Yorker pays a young upstart called Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) to travel to Italy and bring home his wayward son, Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn). But Tom soon befriends Dickie, and things take a dark turn. Scott is perfect for the role, bringing a “hum of sinister energy” to proceedings, with echoes of his “chillingly evil” Moriarty in Sherlock. And the whip-smart script has subtle nods to Caravaggio, who fled Rome after being accused of a crime. It feels like “the Hitchcock series Hitchcock never made”.

Everything certainly “moves along sleekly”, says Mike Hale in The New York Times, and the cinematography – all monochrome – is gorgeous. But the slow pace and notes of “muted, stylish apprehension” leave you feeling as if Highsmith’s “pulpy concoction” has been put through a strainer. And writer-director Steven Zaillian (who wrote Schindler’s List and Moneyball), is “not kind to his characters”: Dickie’s companion Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning) is uptight and tasteless, with a simplistic sense of humour; Ripley is pitched toward cunning and greed rather than passion, which makes him less interesting. Ripley will no doubt appeal to those nostalgic for the 1960s art-house movies it so clearly apes. But others may be better off rewatching the original.

Ripley is available on Netflix, here.
Eight episodes.

Scoop

This dramatisation of Emily Maitlis’s infamous 2019 Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew is irresistible, says Tim Robey in The Daily Telegraph. Writer Peter Moffat delves into the PR wranglings with a “wickedly astute script”; Rufus Sewell is a revelation as the burbling duke, carrying himself “with exactly the right degree of arrogant charm”; and Gillian Anderson inhabits Maitlis “to a tee”. Sorry, but I wasn’t convinced, says Hugo Rifkind in The Times. Much of the action focuses on the show’s producer Sam McAlister (Billie Piper) doggedly trying to secure the interview, which mainly seems to consist of her phoning Andrew’s press secretary and saying: “How about now?” The art of the behind-the-scenes interview booker is “under-rated”, even among journalists. “I’m not sure, though, that it makes great drama.”

Scoop is available on Netflix, here.
1hr 43m.

Big Little Lies

HBO has made some of the “best-regarded dramas of all time”, say Tim Glanfield and Jake Helm in The Sunday Times, and this award-winning show easily ranks among them. Based on the book by Australian author Liane Moriarty, and starring A-listers including Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, it follows the unravelling of a well-heeled town in California. After one of the residents mysteriously dies, what follows is an exploration of friendship, relationships, and the salacious reality of “what really goes on behind the gates of perfectly manicured mansions”. It’s powerful, intriguing, and guaranteed to have you hooked.

Watch Big Little Lies on Amazon Prime, here.
Two seasons.

Elsewhere in The Knowledge Premium:

🎬 A hidden Hugh Grant gem
🥘 The perfect Thai green curry
🚤 The Italian lakes without the crowds