In the Cut (2004, DVD)

Meg Ryan apparently had an itch that needed scratching, a yearning to dump the sweet American girl-next-door image carefully cultivated in movies like When Harry Met Sally (1989), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and You ve Got Mail (1998), and try on a more womanly, worldly sexually adventurous fa ade. Not that Ms. Ryan hasn t pushed the dramatic envelope before in her long theatrical career, with movies like Flesh and Bone (1993), Courage Under Fire (1996), City of Angels (1998), and Proof of Life (2000), but somehow the sweet as kool-aid, shinning image never tarnish.

That is until she chopped off all her blonde locks in a quest for the grunge look and unceremoniously dumped her longtime paramour Dennis Quaid, whom she married in 1991, for the Aussie with the attitude Russell Crowe, her co-star in Proof of Life. Crowe would eventually use Ryan and toss her aside, but she kept the tough-girl fa ade and further honed it in last year s release of In The Cut, in which America's sweetheart bares not only her troubled soul, but her breasts and a few more body parts as well!

The Plot

In The Cut was adapted for the silver screen from a novel of the same name by Susannah Moore, and was directed by Australian Jane Champion (The Piano {1993}, The Portrait of a Lady {1996}). Meg Ryan portrays Frances Avery, a fairly bland, single New York City English teacher and linguist who (yawn) is doing research with one of her (Black) students (who later attempts to rape her boy I would never have seen that coming) in order to pen a book about inner city slang. Avery s rather sluttish half-sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the great mystery of the movie; we never really learn how she makes a living, though we are left to speculate because she lives above a topless bar run by a rather sleazy (gay?) pimp. Her screen time is regrettably short, for Jason Leigh is one of the best actresses working in Hollywood.

When a dismembered female corpse is found outside Frances s apartment window in a vegetable garden, she is questioned along with others in her building by a NYPD homicide detective Giovanni Malloy (Mark Ruffalo). Earlier, before the murder she may have witnessed Malloy receiving an oral sexual favor from the now deceased woman in the basement of a neighborhood bar where she was meeting with her student. She had descended into the basement looking for a bathroom, and playing voyeur, witnessed, as we do, the act in progress. The only clue she has is a rather dark tattoo she notes on the man s wrist, the same tattoo is turns out that Malloy sports.

Though there is nothing what so ever appealing or charming about Malloy he is vulgar, crude, and crass Frances falls for him nonetheless, albeit reluctantly, but I guess we are supposed to believe that she is tired of her rather banal existence and hungers for the excitement and self-deprecation a relationship with a man like Malloy most certainly represents. A hot, torrent affair ensues, resulting in copious amounts nudity (from both parties involved), and slightly out of focus sex that leads me to believe that Ryan drew the line at the actual simulation of sex.

And oh yes, Frances is being stalked by her ex-boyfriend portrayed by Ken Bacon, but his role in the unfolding plot is left up to conjecture. He is a spoiler, dropped in to throw us off the trail of the real killer, and a far too oblivious one.

My Impressions

In The Cutwas shot in a grimy, depressed, and desperate angle, which leaves little room for beauty or human redemption. Director Jane Campion openly admitted she was going for a specific look and feel with In The Cut that of the emotionally charged '70s dramas and thrillers such as the classic 1971 erotic thriller Klute. But In The Cutfalls far short of that mark; perhaps it is the ugliness of the film, its characters and surroundings that failed to move me. Or perhaps it was the incessant vulgarity that so marks the drowning of American written and spoken discourse in mediocrity, laziness, and disrespect for fellow citizen, male or female, that put me off the film; e.g. at one point Malloy quips to Frances that "some women have no sense of the c_ck." Was that line supposed to titillate, or make us squirm, feel a little heated? Do men actually speak to women they just met in such a vulgar manner?

Not that there weren t some moments of sexual eroticism; e.g. the scene where Frances is watching the live sex show in the basement is right out of a porn production, and Ryan despite her slight size, would never be mistaken for a person of the opposite sex. But, in the end, there was little trill and precious little Eros unfolding on the screen; I was neither scared nor excited, enough to recommend this film. The wannabe erotic thriller In The Cut just isn't able to rise to the occasion no pun intended.

Cast: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Liegh,
Director: Jane Champion
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rating: R or strong sexuality including explicit dialogue, nudity, graphic crime scenes and language.
Genre: Erotic Thriller
Length: 1 hr. 58 min.