150 Word Review: 'The American Friend' (1977)

The talented Mr. Hopper

Photo: Criterion Collection

Patricia Highsmith wasn't a fan of director Wim Winder's adaptation of her novel Ripley's Game, but she came around, and so did I. The American Friend is a dingy thriller about high-functioning sociopath Tom Ripley, one of literature and cinema's most beloved anti-heroes, most famously played as a sort of murderous savant by Matt Damon and recently as a vacant bottom feeder by Andrew Scott.

But in Wenders' movie—set in Cold War West Germany—Tom Ripley is a con artist in a cowboy hat, a smiling seducer who manipulates with gusto. Bruno Ganz mesmerizes as a naive picture framer with cancer who insults Ripley in passing, a mistake he regrets. Dennis Hopper is Ripley. His performance reminds us he’s more than the bug-eyed wild man he portrayed in a half-dozen movies. He was an actor of unexpected grace and vulnerability; his Ripley is feline, a low-rent trickster god toying with mortals.

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More Wim Wenders: ‘Perfect Day’ (2023)

Photo: DCM