Spoiler Warning: This will reveal the entire plot of the film, and by extension the plot of the source material, The Talented Mr Ripley
Purple Noon is a work
of amoral art. A rare film that playfully imposes judgement on its characters
and events, not even on its central murderer and identity thief, Tom Ripley.
Any praise or blame you may direct at Tom is very much your own morality, your
own judgement, cast like a pebble to skim on an uncaring sea.
Tom Ripley wants what Phillipe Greenleaf’s got: money, luck,
a life of leisure in Italy, and a beautiful, if too forgiving, fiancé, Marge. Of
all the men in the world to be so blessed, why did it have to be the self-centered,
cruel Phillipe. Tom seems fine, basking in the spillover of Phillipe’s decadence.
But then, on a boat trip with Phillipe and Marge, things take a turn. After
Phillipe and Marge get into a fight, she disembarks at the docks. Tom and
Phillipe sail off alone. Phillipe’s luck runs out. Tom doesn’t just want
Phillipe’s money, he wants it all. Tom stabs him in the chest, and throws him
to the sea. Tom steps into Phillipe’s emptied life. He forges signatures, passports,
and romances Marge. Living with Phillipe’s name and money, Tom gets by
swimmingly, until one of Phillipe’s friends, Freddie Miles, realizes the man
living at ‘Phillipe’s’ apartment is not Phillipe. Tom bludgeons Freddie with a
stone buddha. Even this second murder doesn’t sink Tom. To ensure his good
life, Tom steps back into his old identity, but not before sending Phillipe’s ‘suicide
note’ and all of Phillipe’s money to Marge, and trying to marry Marge. Tom lays
in a deck chair, safe in the knowledge the law has no lead on him. And Tom
would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for Phillipe’s corpse getting
stuck to the hull of the boat Tom was trying to sell.
