Andrew Scott’s new Netflix series is getting rave reviews
The new Netflix show, Ripley, aired today, and is already receiving positive reviews from critics.
Starring Fleabag’s Andrew Scott in the titular role, the eight-episode series is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr Ripley.
The story follows Scott’s character as he takes on a job assignment to take a trip to Italy in an attempt to persuade his employer’s son, Dickie Greenleaf (played by Johnny Flynn), to return home from Europe.
As the series progresses, Tom Ripley works his way into the lives of Dickie and his girlfriend Marge (Dakota Fanning) and the story takes a dark turn.
The novel has been adapted several times before, most famously in 1999 with a feature film starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in the lead roles.
Now, the psychological thriller story takes its form in a television series, shot entirely in black and white.
The Guardian’s five-star review, written by Lucy Mangan, praises the talent of the star-studded cast, saying on Scott: “At the heart of it all, and in virtually every scene, is Scott … There is something for everyone to relate to in him – a dark everyman figure. There is the natural envy of the fortunate … Scott’s Tom is everything and nothing, and mesmeric either way.”
Mangan also described the supporting cast as “uniformly excellent”, adding that “you can’t take your eyes off either of them.”
Meanwhile, Empire’s John Nugent’s four-star review celebrated the cinematography captured in Steven Zaillian’s writing and directing: “Zaillian’s camera establishes and stresses the moody, mysterious tone by finding visual tension in an outwardly beautiful place.”
Nugent also praised Scott’s performance, as well as Zaillian’s adaptation of the story into an eight-part series: “Zaillian makes the most of the long-form format here, luxuriating in the time spent with this psycho, and there is an assuredness to the slow unfolding of it all”.
The series adaptation captures the story’s darker tones, according to Nugent who wrote: “Inevitably, this is a less obviously inviting take on this tale. It is darker, literally and figuratively, and Tom Ripley — so often the scoundrel you love to hate — is less paradoxically likeable here than ever.”
On the other hand, The Independent’s Adam White disapproved of Scott’s casting and performance, writing: “Ripley falters because of its leading man, the typically very good Andrew Scott, who feels all wrong for this. Where Highsmith envisaged Ripley as an eerily calm social climber, who is charming and naive when he’s not beating people around the head with the oar of a boat, Scott plays him as more of an overt ghoul – someone oozing sociopathic menace in the corners of fancy ballrooms.”
White continued: “Dressed in a leather jacket and sporting greased-up hair, he looks more like a lost Mitchell brother than a high society interloper. You never quite get used to it.”
Similarly in Variety’s review, Aramide Tinubu raised issue with the age of the cast: “Since the characters are older than in previous adaptations (both Scott and Flynn are over 40), it’s implausible that the Greenleafs would send a man they don’t know in search of their adult son.”
The review continued: “Ultimately, Ripley fails to offer a new or intriguing perspective on the infamous scammer.”
However, most critic reviews of the series so far have been positive. In a five-star review by the BBC, Caryn James wrote: “Anyone who has seen the glorious, sun-drenched film The Talented Mr Ripley … will be astonished at how this new series transforms the same story into something completely different but just as masterful.”
“Writer and director Steven Zaillian makes his smart script compulsively watchable. Ripley plays as if it were a Hitchcock series Hitchcock never made,” James added.
Ripley is available to stream now on Netflix.
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Alex Berry
NME
