In the Cut Movie Review

In the Cut (2003)

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Written by: Jane Campion & Susanna Moore (screenplay), Susanna Moore (novel), Stavros Kazantzidis (additional writer)
Directed by:Jane Campion
Starring: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
A New York City writing professor Frannie Avery has an affair with a police detective who is investigating a series of murders in her neighborhood.

Verdict
It's an erotic thriller, well an attempt at one. These types of movies always feel second rate, and this isn't an exception. This wants to be evocative. The plot seems to exist just so the audience can try to interpret the embedded metaphors. That would work so much better with a focused story, but that doesn't matter. It's a film class movie where you could dissect what characters represent, but they never feel fully realized. This takes shortcuts to drive the drama, but it doesn't land. The length becomes an impediment.
Skip it.

Review
Frannie (Meg Ryan) is a New York teacher. It's unclear what grade she teaches as she meets a student at a sleazy bar. It has to be college, but the location is an odd choice for several reasons. It's all pretense to get her in a bar so she can witness a lewd act that will cause doubt throughout the movie.

This is an erotic thriller, and it just feels cheap. From what happens to why. It's common as this genre aims to stimulate more than entertain. The story suffers for it.

Meg Ryan plays Frannie Avery

A murder in her neighborhood prompts a cop to question her. She's attracted to Malloy (Mark Ruffalo), and he's interested in her. I wondered about his intentions, but it's just the plot forcing two characters together to create a romance. Of course she doesn't even want to go out with him until her sister urges her. His flirting is creepy, telling her he can be whatever she wants. It just sounds like the stiff dialog typical for the genre. It's a cheap romance novel.

Malloy's partner doesn't carry a gun due to attempted murder against his wife. Why is he still on the street? How can be be effective on the street without a gun? None of it makes any sense.

Mark Ruffalo, Meg Ryan play Malloy, Frannie Avery

It's a meandering movie. The focus is Frannie; her desires and inhibitions which are changing. She's attracted to Malloy, but she has doubts. Could he be the killer? Is that also part of her excitement? He's sexy but dark and mysterious. It's likely an adventure she's imagined.

The undercurrent of this murder investigation is that none of it really matters. Frannie's ex appears several times, but that's an obvious red herring. There's no question that he's not involved in the murders. It's just misdirection.

This movie is too long. It got to the point that I just wanted this to end. I kept waiting for it to become interesting, but it never does. While you could read into this any number of ways from how Frannie represents women to what these men she encounters mean, I'm not going to do that due to how annoyed I became with this movie.