'The Talented Mr Ripley', a drama thriller brought to life from the pages of American Patricia Highsmith's novel, is simply an excellent show.

Matt Damon plays Tom Ripley, with Oscar Award nominated best supporting actor Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf. Tom is an ordinary guy trying to make ends meet in an endless and meaningless existance, so when a wealthy tycoon mistakes him for a Princeton school chum of his son Dickie and hires Tom to persuade his son to return from Italy, why not? A paid-for trip to Europe, what could go wrong?

But Tom instead falls in love with Dickie's footloose lifestyle with endless source of money and a beautiful girlfriend and starts to imitate him. So it is no surprise that when he killed Dickie, Tom assume Dickie's identity easily enough. But Tom has to keep on frantically improvising to cover his tracks and races across Italy, cashing the dead man's cheques, forging letters to his father and trying desperately to stay a step ahead of the police and the Dickie's friends.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman gave solid performances as Dickie's girlfriend and friends.

And Matt Damon played Tom excellently, potraying him as a more sympathetic poor-boy opportunist. He is not a ruthless killer, things just got out of hand. Tom has entered the exclusive world of the rich, he is one of them, and he loves it. He doesn't want it to end, and he will do anything to keep it that way. Like he said, it's better to be a fake somebody that a real nobody.