Con man and general scoundrel Tom Ripley (Malkovich) is at it again. In northern Italy, Ripley is confronted by Reeves (Winstone), a man he grifted a few years earlier, who is in need of an assassin. The Russian mafia are moving in on his territory and Reeves needs their leader eliminated. Rather than take the job himself, he suggests the services of Jonathan Trevanny (Scott), an expatriate English picture framer suffering from leukaemia, for the job. Jonathan isn't a killer, but Ripley is convinced that it will be fun to make him one...

Last seen played by Matt Damon in The Talented Mr Ripley, this time we meet a much more mature and devious Tom Ripley years after his talented introduction. Tom Ripley is the bad guy you loathe to admit that you love, but it's hard not to. The charisma that accompanies his deviance and complete lack of morals is irresistible, and that displayed in Ripley's Game is no exception. In fine form (is he ever not?!), John Malkovich is the first actor to really capture the Tom Ripley of Patricia Highsmith's novels. Many have tried; this is the fourth adaptation of a Ripley novel (Ripley's Game itself has also been made by Wim Wenders as The American Friend in 1977, with Dennis Hopper in Ripley's shoes) and the best to date.