The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Jack Davenport: Peter Smith-Kingsley

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Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Peter : Good things about Mr. Ripley? Could take some time. Tom is talented. Tom is tender... Tom is beautiful... Tom is a mystery. Tom is not a nobody. Tom has secrets he doesn't want to tell me, and I wish he would. Tom has nightmares. That's not a good thing. Tom has someone to love him. That is a good thing. Tom is crushing me. Tom is crushing me... Tom, you're crushing me!

• Peter : Sorry, I'm completely lost.

  Tom Ripley : I know. I'm lost, too. I'm going to be stuck in the basement, aren't I, that's my, that's my... terrible, and alone, and dark, and I've lied about who I am, and where I am, and now no-one will ever find me.

  Peter : What do you mean... lied about who you are?

  Tom Ripley : I always thought it'd be better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.

  Peter : What are you talking about? You're not a nobody. That's the last thing you are.

• Peter : Officially, there are no Italian homosexuals. It makes Michelangelo and Leonardo very inconvenient.

• [inspector asks a question in Italian] 

  Peter : [translating]  Are you a homosexual?

  [under his breath] 

  Peter : Interesting non sequitur...

  Tom Ripley : No!

  Peter : [translating]  No.

• Peter : Can you imagine, though, if he did kill Freddie, what that must be like? Just to wake up every morning. I mean, how can you? Just wake up and be a person? Drink your coffee?

  Tom Ripley : Well, whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense, doesn't it, in your head? You never meet anybody who thinks they're a bad person

  Peter : Well maybe, but you're still tormented. You must be. You've killed someone.

  Tom Ripley : Don't you just take the past and put it in a room in the basement, and lock the door and never go in there? That's what I do.

  Peter : God, Yes. But, of course, in my case, it's probably a whole building.

  Tom Ripley : And then you meet someone special and all you want to do is toss them the key. Say "Open up. Step inside." But you can't, because it's dark, and there are demons. And if anybody saw how ugly it is...

  Peter : Now that's the music talking. Harder to be bleak if you're playing, "Knees up Mother Brown."

  Tom Ripley : I keep wanting to do that, Fling the door open. Just let the light in, clean everything out. If I could take a giant eraser and rub out everything, starting with myself. The thing is, Peter, if... if... , No.

  Peter : No key, huh?

• Tom Ripley : Don't you just take the past, and put it in a room in the basement, and lock the door and never go in there? That's what I do.

  Peter : God, yes. Though in my case, it's probably a whole building.

• Peter : Meredith Logue. You were kissing somebody. Looked like Meredith.

  Tom Ripley : Hardly kissing. Kissing off, maybe.

  Peter : That's not what it looked like...

• Peter : Tom is crushing me.

• Tom Ripley : Ask me what I'd change about this moment.

  Peter : What would you change about this moment?

  Tom Ripley : Nothing.

• Marge Sherwood : [to Tom]  I thought you were going to Venice?

  Peter : Yes, what happened with that? I heard you were desperate to come. I was rather looking forward to rowing you around.

  Tom Ripley : I am. I really am. I've been traveling and I just can't seem to get that far north.

  Peter : Well you should hurry, before we sink.

• Meredith : Marge, I don't know you, so I've got no right to - Dickie loves you. He's - I think you'll find he's on his way home to you.

  Marge Sherwood : Well, how would we know that?

  Meredith : He told me everything. I was supposed to meet him fifteen minutes ago, so - I'm going to go now, I think. God, unless he meant us to meet? That would be a little cruel, wouldn't it?

  Peter : No, we're meeting another friend. Tom Ripley.

  Marge Sherwood : Do you know Tom Ripley?

  Meredith : No! No. I've heard about him, of course, but, I didn't - meet him. No.

• Tom Ripley : I lied. To her. She thought she'd seen you.

  Peter : Why lie?

  Tom Ripley : Dickie and Peter, together, that's just too good gossip.

  Peter : Or, *Tom* and Peter even.

  Tom Ripley : Well that would be even better gossip.