![]() Melinda inviting her “friends” over for dinner… and Vic reading in the living room so Melinda can’t get any private time with her friend. All the real danger and spice was communicated in little things – hostesses being overly nice to Vic at house parties where Melinda spends all her time with other men. While the novel is about a cuckolded husband, Highsmith didn’t include any detailed love scenes. Her six-year-old daughter (Grace Jenkins, who steals the show in every scene) takes after her father, and is starting to figure out the “friends of her mother” are a threat to her daddy. That creates a nice contrast with her stoic husband and his very Anglo-European name. Ben Affleck plays Vic as a passionless but kind man, a coldness that may be darker than others realizes.Īna de Armas plays Melinda as a Latin American who moved to America sometime in her teens, and finds America restrictive. ![]() Vic Van Allen is now a computer developer who made enough money off a computer chip used in drones that he’s retired and spend his time “developing web apps, publishing a magazine of photography and poetry, riding my mountain bike and spending time with my daughter.” Most of his neighbors aren’t bothered by the fact he’s made his money off something used for drone warfare, although Melinda refers to him making bombs and seems to prefer more altruistic men (young artist types, a sustainable housing developer, and so on). The movie follow the novel reasonably closely, updating some of its trappings. So, if anyone would know the history of Highsmith adaptations and how to do something interesting with them, Lyne seemed like a good choice. The French New Wave made a lot of notable films based on Highsmith novels (including the first Ripley adaptation and the 1981 version of Deep Water). Ripley.Adrian Lyne’s previous films included a remake of a 1960s French New Wave thriller by Claude Chabrol, also known for adapting two Highsmith novels. Ben Affleck’s frequent collaborator Matt Damon played Tom Ripley in Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film The Talented Mr. Going into this film, I knew if nothing else it had interesting history. When her next lover is found dead in a swimming pool during a house party, attitudes change. When Vic tells Melinda’s lover Joel Nash that he killed a fellow who “disappeared” six months ago, most people treat it as a dark joke. Vic doesn’t want to upset his life or his young daughter’s life by getting a divorce, so he lets Melinda carry on while getting revenge in small ways. She made dancing embarassing.” Opening paragraph to Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith His rationalization of his attitude was a flimsy one and didn’t fool him for a minute, though it crossed his mind every time he saw Melinda dancing: she was insufferably silly when she danced. He didn’t dance simply because his wife liked to dance. “Vic didn’t dance, but not for the reasons that most men who don’t dance give to themselves. ![]() Vic’s neighbors like him, but pity him since his wife Melinda doesn’t do much to hide her various affairs. ![]() The story opens in Little Westley, an affluent suburb where Vic Van Allen runs a boutique publishing house. Ripley, and is probably one of Highsmith’s best novels. It came out in the same decade as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. I was curious if any of the questions brought up in the Ripley movies would apply to this film.ĭeep Water is based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel of the same name. By coincidence, Deep Water (directed by Adrian Lyne, starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas) came out right as I was wrapping out my blog series, so I decided to postpone my final post and look at that film. Ripley that it seemed like a good idea to look at the various films based on Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley books, since a movie based on one of her other thrillers was coming out soon. I mentioned at the start of my blog series The Cinematic Mr. ![]()
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