I could be wrong about all of it; I'm not saying Tom Ripley was a saint. Obviously he wasn't. What I am saying is that I think in many ways, he was always a better person than Dickie Greenleaf because he had more depth and more of a heart. He was also a thousand times more talented. As Dickie says, his only talent is for spending his father's money and he's right. That's' about it. That and sailing his yacht and his knack it would seem for giving a good lay. That's it. Not bad, but hardly unique.

But our Tom disappoints, because despite all of that potential, his own two chips, one on each shoulder, are what do him in. His own lack of faith in himself and his own knowledge that even society lacks faith in him because he doesn't come from the right kind of background. So the way he sees it, he's fucked.

Of course, there would be many other ways out of this situation, but they would be harder in some ways. Killing people while hard, is not hard if you have no real feeling about it or if you are able to justify to yourself, no matter how twisted the logic. Tom does seem genuinely sorry about it, remorseful, but I get the sense it is more about what he has lost for himself than any sorrow for Dickie. If that were the case, I think he'd come clean. He even sees Marg suffering greatly, yet never once does he tell her the truth, even when it is very clear that she knows.

Before the film is over, Tom Ripley will kill yet more people, including Freddie Miles, though I think he enjoyed that one. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a really convincing snob and is loathsome in a funny way, so loathsome that he's almost likable but not quite. He's very one of the crowd, if you know what I mean. And poor Peter Smith Kingsley, with whom Tom has a homosexual thing with, and again, who he seems really to care about but must kill because otherwise, his entire cover story will be blown by these believable yet bizarre turn s of fate.

I've already spelled out more than intended here in terms of detail. What I'm driving at through all of this is that despite the horrific things he does and how very much he creeps me out, Tom Ripley is an understandable character which is what makes him somewhat sympathetic. You don't hate him in the film. Quite the contrary. His power is that he actually has the crowd feeling sorry for him, which is totally fucked up if you consider what he has done and will continue doing. Knowing that, I've chosen to not feel sorry for him and to know that if I ever met one like him, as no doubt, I have, I would run, not walk, in the opposite direction. People that vacant, that empty are sad, yes it's true. But they are also the type of people who make serial killers and child molesters and voyeurs and other sociopaths because they are so fucking empty inside that every time they do something that have to up the ante just that much more to get a thrill and that is the most disturbing part of all. They will go to any depths just to fucking feel and I for one do not want to be part of helping them get any kind of feeling. If I met Tom Ripley I'd shot him dead, knowing what I know. I would sleep at night. Many have backgrounds that are not dissimilar to Tom Ripleys, but instead of killing people and bemoaning and sitting around with stadium self-pity, they work for things and put themselves through school and college and maybe even hung out with rich American rich and other euro trash types and never once thought of killing any of them.