By tweaking some of the characters & settings from Patricia Highsmith's novel, Minghella makes a truly gripping and intense thriller from a so-so book. The settings and locations are absolutely gorgeous. A beautiful score helps! And the performances from the cast are uniformly excellent, anchored by one of the greatest performances in Matt Damon's career so far in the title role. We see Tom Ripley at the beginning of his career, and even though he is doing patently awful, heinous things, you can't help but be sympathetic to a man who is such damaged goods. At the end of the film we see a man trapped in a hell of his own making.