I watched Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley, a film made in 1999. I love Matt Damon, but I must say I was not happy with the theme and ending of the movie. I don’t like stories that seem to glorify or revolved around heinous characters, and while this movie didn’t actually glorify the character of Tom Ripley, I still found it disturbing. That may have been the intent of the writer and director, Anthony Minghella. Yet I have to say, if ever there was someone who could pull off a repressed, closeted homosexual any more convinciningly than Matt Damon, I have not seen him. But I do prefer my Matt Damon in other, more positive roles.
I also watched a version of Jane Austin’s Persuasion, produced by Netflix in 2022. Persuasion was Austin’s last novel, published in 1817. It’s a second-chance romance story staring Dakota Johnson and Cosmo Jarvis, and it lived up to all that I expect from a Jane Austin story. I loved it, though like many historical period pieces, it did tend to drag in parts. One such intentional lull in the story was when the heroine’s family meets their royal relatives. Everyone sits in awkward silence, until Anne Elliot recounts her absurd dream. That was a great scene! The movie was filled with humor, charm, and a strong, but confused heroine. Just as Jane intended.