Wenders' first successful English-language film builds on the themes
of his German work. But by basing the story on Patricia Highsmith's
novel Ripley's Game, he gained a richer sense of style and a more complex
moral palette. Hopper is outstanding as Ripley, playing him not as a
charming sociopath, like Alain Delon in Plein Soleil, but as the
classic Wenders character: an alienated loner, struggling to make
connections in a fragmented world. The plot set-up has Ripley
persuading Ganz's family man to commit murder on the premise that he
himself is shortly to die, but it's very far from a conventional
thriller.
