In the Cut Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)November 4th, 2003
"In the Cut"
Fran (Meg Ryan) is a lonely high school teacher who lives above a strip joint in a seedy part of Manhattan. One of the girls who work downstairs is brutally murdered and police detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) is on the investigation. He questions Fran to find out i she saw anything that would help him with the case but soon becomes interested in her in a more personal way. But, there is a madman operating in the neighborhood and another body soon turns up in Jane Campion's "In the Cut."
This latest work by Jane Campion is, in a word, disappointing. The hype over Meg Ryan's controversial graphic sex scenes has been so strong I think the filmmakers thought that this, alone, would carry the movie. They should have thought about a screenplay, instead. "In the Cut" provides lots of false paths and fake-you-out finger pointing that is confusing and not very interesting as the murder investigation unfolds.
Campion co-wrote the script with the source novel's author, Susanna Moore. I'm not familiar with Moore's written work so I can't judge that but the screenplay is another story. This is one of the most muddled, uninvolving and artificial so-called thrillers that I have seen in a long time. Ryan, who seems to play her character with a vaguely annoyed look under a helmet of mousy brown hair, give the least credible performances of her career. Sure, she shows of her bod but I think she was so concerned with that fact that she forgot to act.
The only glimmer of hope in this tawdry erotic pot-boiler is the superior (to everything else in the film) performance by Mark Ruffalo as Detective Malloy. I hadn't liked the actor in his previous films but he pulls off a fully developed character who is, per the filmmakers, also one of the prime suspects in the murder investigation. Kevin Bacon keeps walking in and out of the film as Fran's ex-boyfriend and, of course, another candidate for the suspect roster. Jennifer Jason Leigh, as Fran's half sister Pauline, is wasted in a bad role in a bad movie.
"In the Cut" suffers from many things: murky camera work with bad lighting trying to pass for atmosphere; an unrealistic location; unbelievable characters; a murder mystery that does little to mystify; and, a truly horrid performance by Meg Ryan.
I came out of "In the Cut" really ticked off - I wasted hours of my limited lifetime watching a bad movie. I felt like I needed to wash my hands afterwards, too. Mark Ruffalo's perf pushes this one up a notch, all the way to a D-.
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