Matt Damon names the most underrated movie of his career: “One that would get better with age”
As it applies to cinema, “underrated” is a complicated term. It’s one of those words that gets bandied around so often that it’s started to lose all meaning, and it’s debatable if it even applies to the movie that Matt Damon called the most underrated of his career.
Does it describe a great film that flopped at the box office? An acclaimed release that didn’t get the awards season recognition its most ardent supporters think it deserved? A well-received picture that didn’t make much of a commercial or awards season splash? The answer is yes, technically, to all of the above and more.
Looking at Damon’s filmography, there are a few titles that could potentially make the cut. 1992’s School Ties failed to recoup its budget in ticket sales, but it’s an effective and accomplished drama populated by future stars delivering early performance that hinted at the big things to come in their futures.
1998’s Rounders turned a profit but arguably didn’t get its flowers before becoming a cult favourite, and it’s the one role the actor is desperate to play again. Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! got stellar reviews, didn’t bomb, and landed Damon on the Golden Globes shortlist for ‘Best Actor – Musical or Comedy’, so it doesn’t really fit the bill.
However, the filmmaker’s 2011 psychological drama, Margaret, probably does because hardly anyone saw it despite its many merits. If it wasn’t for the studio hacking it to pieces, Billy Bob Thornton’s All the Pretty Horses could be in with a shout, with Damon saying that the version nobody got to watch might be his personal favourite of all the films he’s been in.
It wasn’t any of those. Instead, Damon opted for a literary adaptation that amassed almost $130 million from its theatrical run, notched five Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nods, including one for the leading man in the ‘Best Actor – Drama’ category, which hardly screams “underrated”.
“I think The Talented Mr Ripley is,” he told USA Today when asked to look back at which of his credits are destined to be remembered in the years to come. “Well, I’d have to go back and see it again, but I think it was really underrated at the time. It’s one that probably would get better with age.”
Anthony Minghella’s searing thriller came at a pivotal time for Damon, right after he’d broken through after the one-two punch of winning an Oscar for co-writing Good Will Hunting alongside Ben Affleck and playing the title character in Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Saving Private Ryan.
It gave him everything he wanted in a project during a period when he’d usually settle for two out of his three must-haves, but it does open up the age-old debate. Is The Talented Mr Ripley underrated? It made a lot of money, was celebrated by critics, and became a fixture of that year’s awards season, so it’s not as if it flew under the radar and passed everyone by.
On the other hand, if Damon wants to call it his most underrated film, then he’s more entitled than most to do so.
