"The one thing I know," says Tom Ripley, "is that we're constantly being born," Here, the murderous bisexual grifter of Patricia Highsmith's novels is incarnated as John Malkovich, who pitches his charismatic anti-hero somewhere between Hannibal Lector and Lloyd Grossman.
The fourth Ripley adaptation, this curious European production has both a great strength and weakness in its star - whose droll, compelling, considerable presence is near irresistible, but who never needs much encouragement to slide into panto villainy.
Anthony Minghella's "The Talented Mr Ripley" cast Matt Damon in the title role, and created a credibly conflicted, tragic lead.
Malkovich's Tom is older, wiser and camper, and this darkly funny thriller may think him still a tortured, philosophical soul, but it also revels in his casual callousness and comic amorality ("Hold my watch, because if it breaks, I'll kill everyone on this train").
Three years after Ripley double-crossed him in a con, Reeves (Ray Winstone) bowls up at his ex-partner's plush Italian pad in need of an assassin. Ripley refuses, but points him toward ex-pat picture framer Jonathan Trevanny (the impressive Dougray Scott), a law-abiding family man he wants to change into a killer-for-hire. He thinks it'll be fun.
He's right. "Ripley's Game" provides plenty of blackly comic enjoyment, but it never really moves. It is also marred by poor production values - perhaps the result of a troubled shoot (allegedly, director Liliana Cavani walked out during production, leaving Malkovich to take over).
In his justification for killing ("It's one less car on the road, a little less noise"), Malkovich's Ripley recalls Orson Welles' black marketeer Harry Lime in "The Third Man".
But the lack of emotional resonance may leave the audience feeling for the characters as much as Lime did for the citizens of war-ravaged Vienna.
Ripley's Game (2003)
