Matt Damon's Movie Version Of A Hit Netflix Series Is Coming To The Streaming Service Soon

Anthony Minghella's 1999 film "The Talented Mr. Ripley," which stars Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law, has been exceedingly popular since it released decades ago ... and now it's joining its successor on Netflix.

Based on a novel by thriller master Patricia Highsmith, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" tells the story of the titular Tom Ripley, a conman played perfectly by Damon. As the film begins, we go back in time to the end of the 1950s, when the wealthy and powerful Herbert Greenleaf (James Rebhorn) enlists Tom, whom he mistakenly believes is a Princeton classmate of his son Dickie Greenleaf (Law). The elder Greenleaf offers Tom a small fortune to go track Dickie down and get him to come home — Dickie has been messing around in Italy, and Herbert wants him home in the United States — and Tom travels on a luxurious ocean liner (pretending to be Dickie while on board) to find Dickie in the Italian town of Mongibello.

That's when things get ... interesting. After continuing the ruse that he also attended Princeton and meeting Dickie and Dickie's girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Paltrow), Tom finds himself completely taken in by Dickie's extravagant lifestyle and womanizing ways, the latter of which results in some seriously dark consequences (like the death of a local girl with whom Dickie has an affair). Even after Herbert cuts off his wayward son financially, Dickie, Tom, and Marge find ways to keep traveling through Italy, but everything turns on a dime when, in a moment of rage, Tom kills Dickie and then assumes his identity.

We won't spoil everything that happens after Dickie's death, but there's a reason that "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is such a highly regarded film ... and even though it received plenty of positive attention when it came out, the film's reputation has only grown since then.

At the 72nd Academy Awards held in 2000, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" earned a few "below the line" nominations, including ones for its score (by Gabriel Yared), costume design (by Ann Roth and Gary Jones), and production design (by Roy Walker and Bruno Cesari), but it also notably scored a nod for adapted screenplay for Anthony Minghella's sharp adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's book as well as a supporting actor nomination for Jude Law. (This was Law's first of two nominations as of this writing, with the second coming just a few years later for "Cold Mountain.") This is all unsurprising, because when "The Talented Mr. Ripley" first released, it was met with acclaim from critics and audiences alike.

Not only did "The Talented Mr. Ripley" prove to be a huge box office success — earning nearly $130 million on a budget of just $40 million — but critics loved it too. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie still holds an average rating of 85% with a critical consensus that declares, "With Matt Damon's unsettling performance offering a darkly twisted counterpoint to Anthony Minghella's glossy direction, 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' is a suspense thriller that lingers." In recent years, critics have re-appraised the film, with Anthony Lane writing for The New Yorker in 2023, "The film feels warm but unsettled, as if hinting at approaching storms; the score, too, flits from lugubrious to manic." Nick Schager expressed a similar sentiment in The Daily Beast in 2021, calling the movie "A decidedly dark and demented sort of polished gem, all spectacular surfaces masking a fundamentally rotten core."

Now that the movie is coming to Netflix, it's joining a recent adaptation that made waves on the streamer — so let's talk about "Ripley."

In 2024, Oscar winner Steven Zaillian — who won a trophy for the "Schindler's List" screenplay and also racked up nominations for films like "Gangs of New York," "Moneyball," and "The Irishman" — revived Tom Ripley's story with the simply titled miniseries "Ripley," which stars "Fleabag" veteran Andrew Scott as the titular antihero. Marking the very first time that a Patricia Highsmith novel was adapted for a TV series and not a film, "Ripley" follows the same journey as "The Talented Mr. Ripley," recasting Marge Sherwood with Dakota Johnson and reintroducing the rakish Dickie Greenleaf as played by Johnny Flynn.

To set itself apart from Anthony Minghella's film, though, "Ripley" plays with its style. The eight-episode limited series is presented in a stark black-and-white colorway, which helps it feel more like classic noir, and by forgoing devices like narration, Zaillian keeps the focus on Scott's outstanding performance. Scott, who earned an Emmy nomination for his role, spoke to Vanity Fair about taking on such an iconic role decades after Minghella's movie and Matt Damon's phenomenal performance, and he was quite blunt about the experience (but in a good way). "I feel like you're required to love and advocate for your characters, and your job is to go, Why? What's that? You don't play the opinions, the previous attitudes that people might have about Tom Ripley," he told the outlet. "You have to throw all those out, try not to listen to them, and go, Okay, well, I have to have the courage to create our own version and my own understanding of the character."

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" hits Netflix on December 13, and the series "Ripley" is streaming there now.