In Steven Zaillian’s “Ripley,” a gorgeous, witty, cinematic extravaganza chronicling the charlatan’s journey from a bleak existence in New York City to a luxurious one in Italy, Irish actor Andrew Scott (“Sherlock,” “Fleabag”) expunges every trace of his considerable charm to produce a dour, awkward Tom Ripley whose joyless smile is as false as the signatures he fakes. One understands why this man wants to escape his grim surroundings and himself. And why his genial American target, a rich would-be artist named Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), offers to put him up in Italy: Scott plays the character as so overtly bland and unoffending he’s technically unimpeachable even if he’s a little repellent — as Dickie’s girlfriend, Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning), a middling memoirist from Minnesota, discovers while trying to turn Dickie against him. Compensating for Scott’s restraint is the camera, a wildly expressive agent that quickly establishes itself as the show’s biggest character (and only true artist). Zaillian’s adaptation is conceptually as well as visually wry, lushly hyper-referential and packed with winks. — L.L.
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