In The Cut Movie Review:


After evidence from a murder is found in her garden, Franny Avery (Ryan) is questioned by Detective Giovanni Molloy. Molloy’s brutal honesty and sheer confidence sparks an interest in Franny, which leads to obsession. While the two can’t stop thinking of each other and there relationship grows more passionate, the killer continues on his rampage.

Meg Ryan well and truly buries her girl-next, romantic comedy image to prove what a good actress she actually is.

Based on the gritty novel by Susanna Moore, Ryan takes over a role earmarked for Nicole Kidman to produce a performance that will shock and amaze her fans. This is a complete departure for the Rom-Com favourite and it allows her to really get to grips with her craft and her own sexuality. This visually explicit movie cuts all ties to Ryan’s usual on screen persona allowing the actress to show her talent for the dramatic as she did fleetingly in movies like The Doors, Courage Under Fire and The Presidio. As the actress enters her 40s (she still looks stunning) and her bread and butter roles start to dry up, In the Cut opens her up to a whole new casting call. This is a breakout movie for Ryan and should be an extremely positive career move.

Her standout performance is well supported by the up and coming Mark Ruffalo. This is also a breakout role for the actor, as it showcases his talent for characterisation and that he has a good screen presence. He creates in Detective Molloy, a character that is very elusive, as you never know if you should trust him or what his motivations are. The chemistry between Ryan and himself works well as he succeeds in a creating the kind of intrigue and mystery that women all so readily find fascinating.

The whole movie revolves around their relationship but this is at the expense of the other characters. Both Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kevin Bacon’s characters are severely underused and underdeveloped. Jason Leigh’s man obsessed sister isn’t given enough screen time or background to become interesting and Bacon’s stalker ex-boyfriend has no depth and falls into stereotypical behaviour.

The story itself is slow and lethargic, never really building any understanding or sympathy for the down beaten characters. Director Jane Campion tries her best to ignite some interest by making the movie visually superb but even the ingenious use of focus, crisp editing and moody lighting can’t hide the story’s shortcomings.

Sexually explicit, dark and moody, In the Cut is a showcase of acting talent and directorial flare that is let down by the inadequacies of the story. The performances from the two leads do save this from the mediocre, making it far more watchable than it could have been but you can’t help thinking that it could have been so much more.

Star Rating = * * *

Jamie Kelwick

Jane Campion is back with another visually sumptuous yet deeply disturbing look at gender issues. Frannie (Ryan) is an introverted Manhattan school teacher obsessed with quirks of the English language. Her life is completely intertwined with her half sister (Leigh) and yet outsiders keep breaching the peace. First there's Detective Malloy (Ruffalo) investigating a particularly gruesome local murder.

There's the guy (Bacon) who just won't take no for an answer and is becoming a desperate stalker. And there's a bright young student (Pugh) who seems to be squandering his talents. Frannie is interested in all three men, but hasn't a clue how to go about it. Malloy isn't quite so reticent, and he doesn't take long getting Frannie into bed. But then he's distracted by the increasing body count.

As usual, Campion shoots the film gorgeously, cleverly isolating each frame to show us just what she wants us to see, blurring the edges both of the images and the story, and editing with a clear sense of subtext and meaning. So it seems doubly strange that the story struggles to get into gear. As an examination of how Frannie's fragile world is completely turned upside down, this is powerful filmmaking indeed, and yet Campion can't resist the demands of the serial killer plotline, which takes over unsatisfactorily toward the end. She also can't resist being profoundly politically incorrect, testing our notions of feminism, machismo, sex, racism and violence at every turn.

This is challenging and bracing ... and somewhat wearying! But the film emerges triumphant due to sensitive performances from Ryan and Ruffalo. We're used to this kind of revelatory work from Ruffalo, but Ryan rarely makes films with this much raw pain, emotional nakedness and cathartic physicality, and she's more than up to the challenge. Meanwhile, Leigh is terrific as her slightly airy sister, and Damici adds intriguing texture as Malloy's offbeat partner.

This is another one of those films that will sharply divide viewers; let's just hope Campion keeps on making them!

Rich Cline

Meg Ryan finally grows up in Jane Campion’s In the Cut. Gone is her squeaky-clean image as America’s sweetheart that she honed to perfection in When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle and carried on to increasing indifference in Kate and Leopold. Even the blue eyes and blonde shag are gone to be replaced by coloured contact lenses and long chestnut-red hair as she takes on the highly sexual role of Frankie Avery.

On paper the part of college professor Avery seems familiar – a lonely New Yorker who is unlucky in love - but from the outset it is obvious that it is as far away from Ryan’s previous romantic comedy roles as you can get. The part was originally intended for Nicole Kidman (who stayed on as a producer) and it is interesting to see how Ryan takes on an element of the steely elegance that Kidman is famed for and even looks like her at times. Ryan is a revelation as the repressed and humourless Avery who understands words more than she does love. The closest she gets to the realms of emotion is reading poetry on the underground to work everyday.

When Avery witnesses a sexual encounter at a bar she becomes involved in a police investigation after a woman is murdered there and pieces are found in her back garden. She quickly falls for the elusive detective sent to investigate the murder played superbly by Mark Ruffalo. When detective Malloy tells her that he can be anyone she wants him to be Avery finds it hard to resist. Ryan takes a considerable risk playing a woman fully in charge of her own sexuality with nudity and graphic sex scenes and the gamble pays off. In the Cut is a highly charged, frank and erotic film seeped with blurry visuals that reinforce its oppressive, dream-like quality.

The film is a complex tangle of voyeurism and obsessive relationships. Everyone appears to be infatuated with somebody from Avery’s sister Pauline played by Jennifer Jason Leigh obsessed with a doctor to Avery’s ex-boyfriend and stalker, a hilariously neurotic Kevin Bacon. The camera even follows characters’ gazes as they watch people on the street.

As can be expected from a Campion film the women are much stronger than the men and it is this shift in power - disturbed by the reversal of traditional notions of love and romance - that informs the film’s ending. When Pauline asks her sister if she is thinking about Malloy she replies that she is thinking about the sex. Malloy tells Avery that he is “starting to feel like a chick” when she keeps him handcuffed after a particularly frenetic session.

If the film fails to function as an effective thriller in the end that is because the plot is almost secondary to the film’s study of sexual politics and modern day relationships which is far more compelling. The story unfolds like a dark, twisted fairy tale and in one scene Ruffalo even helps Ryan put on her missing slipper. But with a princess who prefers sex to kisses, a prince who could be the killer, and a murderer on the loose who proposes to women before he decapitates them a white wedding is definitely not on the cards.

Ann Lee

A lot of people when witnessing “In the Cut”, the new suspense drama from director Jane Campion (“The Piano”), will wonder where Meg Ryan went and what she has become upon her return to the silver screen. Maybe it’s a butterfly returning to the cocoon to become a larva. Whatever it is, it’s a shocking but poignant metamorphose for the actress.

Ryan plays Frannie, a withdrawn, well-educated teacher who lives in a flophouse in the heart of New York City. Frannie’s life is fueled by her passion for the written word. Her apartment is laced with notes with favorite sayings and quotes. Each day she looks forward to reading a new poem or quote on the advertisements in the subway. Frannie loves her life the way it is. Until one day when Detective Malloy came knocking.

It seems that Malloy found a young woman murdered in Frannie’s neighborhood and he needs some information from Frannie. Their chemistry was evident from the get-go and eventually with advice from Frannie’s promiscuous sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh); Frannie has an affair with Malloy.

What is the dynamic of the affair? Is Frannie seeking protection from the demons in her neighborhood? Is it just the comfort of someone in her bed? Or is there something more dark and sinister happening to this lonely teacher who used to love her life.

Jane Campion’s “In the Cut” is laced with all the typical Campion language and sexual metaphors and some more blatantly obvious than in her previous films. Like her previous film “Up in Smoke” she doesn’t shy away from nudity, explicit sex and pushing her actors till they break. Campion’s women have always been the showcase of her pieces and that is evident with the amazing portrayal given by Ryan. Campion’s faults have always been her development of daft men. All her men have always been aggressive, abusive and vulgar. This even dates all the way back to Harvey Keitel’s performance in Campion’s Oscar winning “The Piano”. Like all Campion films there isn’t one male performer who we like in the whole piece. I was half hoping Ryan would go all Tarrantino on these guys.

Back to Ryan’s performance, it is probably the most flawless performance of her career. Ryan hasn’t had much luck with playing more serious and dramatic parts but this is truly a landmark. You know what goes on inside this character’s head and it tears you up inside because you want to protect and care for her as it seems nobody in the film can.

The conventions of the murders, the framework of the mystery, the vulgar nature of the male characters and an absolute ridiculous ending are all punishing pitfalls that lay into “In the Cut”. Campion has once more built herself an amazing central female lead but has forgotten about structuring credible dynamic around her. And that in itself makes this film so utterly painful to watch.

This story and world seems to be a cerebral canvas that has failed to enter a visual medium. With so much at stake with Frannie there should have been more intrigue and intensity but instead the film comes off as a deconstruction of one strong woman in an extraordinary time. This deconstruction seems fueled by her sexual behavior and dissention into paranoia and uncertainty.

“In the Cut” fails as an erotic thriller and becomes the perfect example of a Campion film. Rough, rugged, erotic and quite out there with intelligent and strong women and daft hormonal men.

Ryan is phenomenal but sadly it’s the only remarkable thing in a lucid Jane Campion film.

(2 out of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer

Dean Kish

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