Dakota Fanning’s Marge Is an Unexpectedly Perfect Villain for ‘Ripley’
Like every adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, Netflix’s new rendition follows Thomas Ripley as he travels through Europe after murdering his friend Dickie Greenleaf and stealing his identity. This may be the second of two fantastic performances Andrew Scott has delivered in the last six months, but it’s Dakota Fanning’s turn as Marge Sherwood that shines in Netflix’s Ripley—in ways that past versions of the character never could.
While Tom believes himself to be the ultimate outsider, he and Marge are two sides of the same coin. Deep down, the titular character knows this, and it makes his hatred of her grow. But, instead of being a side character that simply gets on Tom’s nerves—like in Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film, the best-known film based on Highsmith’s novel—Marge uses his hatred for her to her advantage, reinventing her character along the way.
The two are clearly separate factions warring for the same man’s attention, and cracking each other's resolve as Tom and Dickie grow closer. Unlike Paltrow’s version of the character in the 1999 film, Fanning’s Marge is suspicious of Tom from the very beginning. In the Netflix series’ penultimate episode, “Macabre Entertainment,” she tells Inspector Pietro Ravini (Maurizio Lombardi), who is looking for Tom, that he is the “kind of person who takes advantage of other people”—but then maybe, so is she. Her love for Dickie (Johnny Flynn) is like Tom’s love for him: superficial. Here, Dickie is not as magnetic as the 1999 filmic version of him, which works if we think about Marge and Tom being obsessed with the idea of Dickie rather than the actual man himself.