WARNING! This article contains spoilers for Ripley (2024)!
Summary
- Ripley on Netflix offers a thrilling adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel, outperforming previous adaptations with its book-accurate direction.
- Led by Andrew Scott, Ripley weaves a dark, murderous path through noir-style twists, reminiscent of Highsmith's captivating storytelling.
- Strangers on a Train, another masterpiece by Highsmith adapted by Alfred Hitchcock, offers a gripping portrayal of killers from their perspective.
Netflix’s Netflix’s Ripley show debuted at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, maintaining an incredible reviews hot streak for star Andrew Scott while also standing tall among the highest-rated Tom Ripley adaptations yet. Though the most famous screen iteration of Tom Ripley’s story was 1999’s Matt Damon-starring The Talented Mr. Ripley movie, the 2024 Ripley show takes a more book-accurate direction to outperform the box office smash’s reviews.
The cast of Ripley is led by Andrew Scott, whose character Tom Ripley starts out as a con artist barely making ends meet in New York City before he’s recruited to bring the wealthy Dickie Greenleaf back to the United States from Italy. Ripley’s time in Italy establishes a growing infatuation with Dickie, leading Tom down a dark, murderous path. The noir-style black-and-white thriller comes with plenty of compelling twists and turns before Ripley’s ending, with the brilliant storytelling and shocking premise being reminiscent of another critically acclaimed Patricia Highsmith book adaptation from 1951.
Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train Is Another Hit Adaptation Of A Patricia Highsmith Thriller Book
Ripley & Strangers on a Train both come from stories by author Patricia Highsmith
After Ripley, audiences can experience similar thrills and shocks in the 1951 crime thriller Stranger on a Train. The classic is directed by the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, and stars Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, and Robert Walker. Strangers on a Train holds an impressive 98% score on ranked high among Alfred Hitchcock’s best movies. The noir movie was initially met with mixed reviews and arrived before Hitchcock’s classics like Vertigo, Psycho, North by Northwest, and Rear Window, but retrospective views of Strangers on a Train often regard it as one of the director’s masterpieces.
10 Unforgettable Villain Performances In Alfred Hitchcock's Movies
Some of the most frightening villains in cinema history are found in Alfred Hitchcock movies, renowned for their impact and chilling performances.
Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train is based on the book of the same name by The Talented Mr. Ripley author Patricia Highsmith, which was originally published only a year earlier in 1950. Both the book and movie follow two men who meet on a train and decide to “trade” murders, leading to dark twists as their lives become increasingly entangled. One of the men, Bruno, proposes that he will murder Guy Hawkes’ wife in exchange for Guy killing Bruno’s father, as the police would be unlikely to suspect them without motive. When the agreement goes from hypothetical to reality, Strangers on a Train takes audiences on a riveting ride.
Movie/TV Adaptation |
Patricia Highsmith Novel |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
|---|---|---|
Strangers on a Train (1951) |
Strangers on a Train |
98% |
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) |
The Talented Mr. Ripley |
85% |
Ripley's Game (2002) |
Ripley's Game |
92% |
The Two Faces of January (2014) |
The Two Faces of January |
80% |
Carol (2015) |
The Price of Salt |
94% |
Deep Water (2022) |
Deep Water |
35% |
Ripley (2024) |
The Talented Mr. Ripley |
87% |
Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train is based on the book of the same name by The Talented Mr. Ripley author Patricia Highsmith.
Strangers On A Train & Ripley Both Follow The Killer's Point Of View
Patricia Highsmith's novel follow risky perspectives
Patricia Highsmith’s novel Strangers on a Train arrived five years before her acclaimed thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley, with both exploring gruesome crimes and cat-and-mouse chases from the perspective of the killer. Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train movie derails from the book’s events and sees Guy refuse to honor the deal rather than hold up his end of the bargain by eventually murdering Bruno’s father, though the film and book both contend with Guy’s guilt over his connection to Miriam’s murder. Ripley and its inspirational book aren’t too different, as they explore Tom Ripley resorting to murder and doing whatever it takes to cover up his crimes.
Why Netflix's Ripley Show Is In Black & White
The Netflix series Ripley was shot entirely in black and white, a creative choice made by Academy Award-winning screenwriter & creator Steven Zallian.
Furthermore, both stories escalate with added perspectives from the private investigator or lead detective on the murder case as well as that of the female romantic interest. In Strangers on a Train, Guy and Bruno are pursued by the police and closely watched, with The Talented Mr. Ripley adaptation and book seeing Tom try to outwit the Italian authorities. Similarly, the protagonists getting away with their murderous plans face obstacles from Guy’s girlfriend Anne in Strangers on a Train and Dickie’s girlfriend Marge in Ripley.
Highsmith’s novels make Strangers on a Train and Ripley’s main characters so compelling that audiences are presented with the moral dilemma of still wanting them to avoid getting caught.
Despite the terrible crimes that the protagonists become entangled in, Highsmith’s novels make Strangers on a Train and Ripley’s main characters so compelling that audiences are presented with the moral dilemma of still wanting them to avoid getting caught. This was an especially difficult trick for Hitchcock to pull off with the film adaptation in 1951, as the Hays Production Code would have flagged the movie for being too sympathetic to criminals. Although Ripley was released 73 years later, its black-and-white early ‘60s-era noir atmosphere makes the story feel just as risky.
Ripley is available to stream exclusively on Netflix. Strangers on a Train is available to stream on Tubi.
David Fincher Was Supposed To Remake Strangers On A Train Back In 2015 (But It Never Happened)
The Ben Affleck-starring remake never got off the ground
Aside from the book itself, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 Strangers on a Train movie remains the most famous iteration of the crime thriller story. After the film was loosely remade in 1969 by Robert Sparr as Once You Kiss a Stranger, the possibility of another movie remake widely circulated in the mid-2010s. At one point in 2015, iconic thriller movie director David Fincher was attached to a Strangers on a Train remake, which reportedly would have reunited him with Gone Girl star Ben Affleck (via Deadline). However, this film never came to fruition after being delayed only a few months later, with nothing having come of it in the near-decade since.
However, with Ripley’s success on Netflix, the idea of a Strangers on a Train remake could potentially be reignited. It seems unlikely that Fincher would return to the mindset of remaking Alfred Hitchcock’s classic, but his collaborations with Netflix on projects like Mindhunter and The Killer could still make it a possibility. Even outside of Strangers on a Train, there are plenty of Patricia Highsmith crime novels that have yet to receive acclaimed adaptations, making them ripe for a new movie or show on Netflix after Ripley.
Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Deadline
Ripley
- Release Date
- 2024 - 2023
- Showrunner
- Steven Zaillian
- Directors
- Steven Zaillian
Cast
Johnny Flynn
WHERE TO WATCH
Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, Ripley is a drama-thriller written and created by Steven Zaillian. Set in the 1960s, the series follows Tom Ripley, who is hired to attempt to coax a wealthy man's son to come home - but this job is just the first part of a lengthy and dangerous complex web of lies.
Your comment has not been saved