![]() ![]() Turns out, sometimes it does work, and it’s still fascinating to watch. And from a storytelling perspective, the old unofficial rule we all know-if the bad guy reveals the plan to us ahead of time, it won’t work-is turned on its head. ![]() The movie not only incorporates but emphasizes the importance of two factors that are too often ignored in this genre: one, the human factor, that detectives, like anyone else, can sometimes be a tad lazy and a bit too eager to accept the simplest explanation and two, the importance of sheer dumb luck, sometimes as random as the side on which a coin drops. And a few hiccups aside, he gets away with it! The tension and surprises come not from head-twisting revelations so much as watching just how close Chris comes on several occasions to getting caught. We know his plan, including misdirection and alibis. Tom got away with (at least) two murders, but he, himself, surely would not have labeled them “perfect.”Ī flawlessly cast noir film of an upper-crust family in London, what impressed me was how literally and linearly the perfect murder, committed by Chris Wilton, unfolds. It’s what Tom does afterwards, bobbing and weaving, improvising literally in the moment, avoiding near-miss after near-miss, that makes this movie such a rare gem from a purely “craft” standpoint. ![]() But what makes this one so interesting to me is that Tom Ripley’s perfect murders (yes, plural) were entirely spontaneous, born of passion or desperation, not skillful planning. The star-studded adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel succeeded on every level (including the box office) and has been lauded for both its plotting and its commentary on social class and sexuality. (And not often enough since!) Sexually twisted and unapologetically macabre, what I love most about this one is how artfully her plot to commit the perfect murder unfolded before our eyes, though we didn’t even know she was planning a murder. Some are better than others, but I love each one’s take on depicting the perfect murder.Ī lesser-known movie that was well ahead of its time, originating on cable television, thus denying Linda Fiorentino eligibility for an Oscar nomination she richly deserved for playing an unrepentant, manipulative, sociopathic protagonist/antagonist rarely seen in female characters up to that time. Here a few of my favorites-from the standpoint of the craft. So many movies have incorporated these concepts so well, in so many gloriously different ways. A husband and wife, each with lovers, and all of them with motives-greed, betrayal, despair, love, and don’t forget revenge-constantly shifting throughout the novel. I love all those different variations so much that I couldn’t choose just one-I put all of them in my new novel, LOOK CLOSER, a domestic thriller involving the murder of a beautiful socialite in a wealthy bedroom community outside Chicago. A murder so immaculately planned that nobody is even charged? So perfectly committed that it doesn’t even look like murder? So diabolical that someone else takes the fall? An impulsive killing hastily but brilliantly covered up after the fact? Just getting away with murder doesn’t make it perfect-by that definition, every murder that does not result in a conviction would be “perfect.” No, we need more than that. Right?) It means many things to many people. ![]() How much we love the “perfect murder.” (Talking fiction here. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |