It isn’t as lean as it could be (there are prolonged lulls in Rome and Venice; an overblown diversion about Caravaggio), but what a sublime character study for Scott, what luscious photography, what prestige cat-and-mouse storytelling. It’s a triumph.

While Patricia Highsmith’s novel, “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” and the film it spawned were engrossing, “Ripley” takes the skill to a different level. .... A technicolor Italy is certainly attractive, but a black-and-white one demands attention. Zaillian doesn’t waste the conceit. He gets high drama from crashing waves and a performance from Scott that embraces more than 50 shades of gray.

While some might be put off by “Ripley’s” measured tempo and its detached icicle of a protagonist, noir fans won’t be and will admire how effectively it revives an often overworked genre. Simply put, “Ripley” nails it.

He [Steven Zaillian] has provided the perfect platform for Scott to bring the thrills and chills. Forget Hot Priest – ice-cool Ripley is the man in black (and white) he was born to play.

A straightforward and involving, if somewhat cold-blooded, adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley.”

Other than unnecessarily elongating the story and filming it in black and white, Netflix’s adaptation does nothing to improve on the Oscar-nominated film that already exists.

And though Scott isn’t exactly Ripley, his approach to scenes is so weird and idiosyncratic that he often makes the performance work on its own terms. Still, there’s no getting past the flatness of this series, the dead air between exchanges of dialogue and the overall feeling of grimness. “Ripley” is neither Highsmith nor a plausible substitute. If anything, it’s a missed opportunity.