Beauty Vs. Beast - Two Talented Misters
Monday, March 24, 2014 at 6:04PM 
JA from MNPP here with this week's "Viva l'Italia!" edition of our Beauty Vs Beast series - buongiorno and welcome. First a note: I'm going to be out of town next week, so this week's poll will be open for two weeks until Monday April 7th. Where am I going to be, you ask? Well crazily enough I'm going to be in Italy, what a coincidence! (Obviously not a coincidence.)
I didn't choose this week's competition soley due to the fact that I'll be stomping the same grounds that these characters did - oh it didn't hurt, but I've also got The Talented Mr. Ripley on my mind due to the passing of the marvelous character actor James Rebhorn this weekend; he played Dickie's father, the jazz-hater who instigates the whole sordid affair. "I'd pay that fellow a hundred dollars right now to shut up."
That said The Talented Mr. Ripley is giving us exactly what this series was created for - you've got a sympathetic maniac and an unsympathetic victim to choose between, and the film does not make the picking easy. But I'm gonna make you pick anyway!
Again you've got two weeks, until Monday April 7th, to vote and to make your cases for which ever character you're rooting for in the comments, so have at it. Persuade me - I am actually undecided myself! This is a tough one.
PREVIOUSLY ON As for last week's competition pitting the boys of In Bruges against one another, the puppy-dog eyes plus and the guilty conscience were just too much to resist - Colin Farrell's Ray rode away with precisely 2/3rds of the vote, leaving Ralph Fiennes' Harry cursing (and cursing, and cursing, and cursing) in the dust. As Deborah put it:
"Harry was kind of playing Sexy Beast, whereas Ray was an original."
Reader Comments (17)
While I want to give Tom a big hug, Dickie is pornographically hot. He might be a cold bastard when he's ready but you still get your time in the sun with all his heat that makes it worthwhile.
Why do you think Marge hung around so long?
Jude Law is so immaculate looking it's criminal. Especially in the clothes they have him wearing and the setting of the story where the sun and blue sky background add so much to his already appealing exterior. Law felt like such a freak in his wardrobe they let him keep it. There's some photos of how sheer his murder victim shirt actually is.
Matt Damon has a virtue few white men have--a big ass. God bless him, its beautiful, and he's adorable in a way only grown men can be. He's also, the underrated actor of that film. And personally the best in show for me over the women and (except for Hoffman) over the men.
I don't get how is that Dickie is winning. Of course he's hot and gorgeous (the character is supposed to be like that), and Law is great in the part. Tom, in contrast, isn't hot, he is a parasite, a nobody, a creep who is capable of anything to be somebody. He's the sociopath who kills the luminous Dickie, and yet, for the whole movie you are rooting for Tom to get away with murder, and that's the whole point of the film anyway. At some point, very deep in our personality, we want to be as clever and talented as Mr. Ripley is.
Dickie. Tom is a creep.
I chose Tom even though he's a weirdo... Dickie was a huge dick. At least Tom was nice, despite his murderous tendencies.
I'm really surprised at the love for Dickie here. The Talented Mr. Ripley was one of those movies that came out around the time of so many great villains who you wanted to win in the end but they never did. Tom was one of the few who wins and it's a great movie for it.
dickie had it all, tom wanted it all - i always go with the underdog
It was Dickie all the way. I'll take a beautiful bitch (been there, done that) over a plain bitch (been there, done that) any day.
Always thought it was strange that Law got a nomination for this. He was fantastic, but it just seems like a very atypical choice for the Academy (no real histrionics, no breakdowns as far as I can remember; just a hot, entitled, rich boy). And Matt Damon gives, for my money, his best performance ever here.
Had to go with Dickie. I just love how unabashedly sexy Law is in this. Just effortless appeal. As good as the whole thing is (especially Damon. He makes you sympathize with a creep. Killing Dickie aside, I really did want Tom to end up happy with Peter), the still excellent second half of the film suffers just a wee bit because "the sun" is not around. If I had a time machine, I would go back to 99, grab Nicole from Eyes Wide Shut, Law from this, and make the sexiest movie ever. Plot you ask? Unimportant.
Dickie, of course. Just look at that image.
Tough one. For character, I prefer Tom. For actor, I prefer Jude Law (has he ever looked so golden?).
I liked the way in the Plein Soleil adaptation, you got the best of both, with Tom played by the gorgeous Alain Delon. That interpretation made sense too. Why shouldn't Tom have Dickie's life if he's better looking as well as smarter with better taste?
I still have to see the Tom Ripley story with Barry Pepper as Ripley. I think he'd be perfect.
Val - surely that's what they were thinking when they made COLD MOUNTAIN. "I will marry yewwww"
How did Jude Law lose all his sex appeal? I mean right now, there is no glimpse of any contest between Matt Damon and Jude Law. Matt Damon is probably one of the most effortlessly appealing actors of his generation. And no one mentions Jude in any sex symbol capacity. Is it the receding hairline? what is it? Maybe it's for the best. Pretty boy status has probably hurt him quite a bit.
Tony T - He didn't lose his sex appeal to me. He looks more like a man who weathered through a somewhat rough personal and professional life. Law has always been judged for his association with greatness either from his matinee idol appearance in the beginning of his ascendance or appearing in several prime on paper auteur vehicles which piggybacked off of each other causing everyone to believe Law was being forced on us undeservedly so. I root for Law not to become a box office draw but to regain a critical standing and receive a deserved for being Jude Law Oscar win.
Jude Law hasn't lost any of his sex appeal - I actually think he might be sexier now. Not prettier obviously, but he was maybe just too untouchably pretty before. Granted he always seemed to try and even out his prettiness with roles like Dickie or Bosie in Wilde where he wallowed in arrogance; he always made sure to keep an edge about him that made loving him feel better than loving some bland pretty thing. It's not like I'd ever have passed up the chance to wallow in his prettiness back in the day! Heavens, no. But now look at him in something like Dom Hemingway, with the extra weight he packed on and the jaw-jutting gruffness - THAT is just plain sex. Obviously this is just personal preference though.
i dont think he's lost any of the sexy either... though yes, the "pretty pretty prince" factor is kind of gone.