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| In The Cut By Rakechan |
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| Directed by: Jane Campion Starring: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kevin Bacon 2003 Running time: 119 minutes Rated: 18 Frannie (Meg Ryan) is a respected and highly intelligent English Professor, who discovers the corpse of a young woman has been dumped in her back garden when a police detective, Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) turns up at her door to see if she can help with the investigation. There is an intense attraction between Frannie and Malloy, and a passionate and erotic affair ensues. When the murders seem to become more violent and more personal to Frannie, she begins to worry what she’s become involved in. A highly charged erotic thriller, we are dealing with pure pulp cinema here. The main thing that sets ‘In the Cut’ apart from the average throwaway pulp film is the art of it. Jane Campion has gone to a lot of effort and added very much to a genre that is generally completely disposable. Unfortunately the standard of direction may not be enough to hook all viewers, and this film is certainly lacking in a few vital qualities, point being the most obvious. Campion, who frequently deals with feminist values attempts to show the contrast between what women dream of and reality, and in some scenes is works very well indeed. In the overall plot, however, the point is lost and the one thing that stays with you is just the smuttiness of it all! Meg Ryan is clearly acting her heart out in the hope of some recognition when the awards are handed out, however, although she is clearly breaking away from her usual ‘butter-wouldn’t-melt’ type of character, I’m afraid she is fairly unsuccessful. It’s not necessarily just Ryan’s fault; the script is also to blame- the majority of the script is just purely about sex. This is fine, as long as it aids the story along its way, but instead what we see are a series of scenes in which Ruffalo and Ryan talk about and end out having sex. This is not a story. This is pretentious porn. Sorry. There are some saving graces however, Kevin Bacon is well cast as a psychotic ex-lover stalker of Frannie, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, as ever, is stunning as Frannie’s messed up sister. Unfortunately ‘In the cut’ will probably not stand up next to Campion’s previous efforts, most notably ‘The Piano’, however, it is not an entirely awful film. The cinematography, and dream-like atmosphere certainly makes this film rise above what could have otherwise been merely a sex-flick, seen only by old men in greasy rain-macs. |