In the Cut (R) ★½

In the Cut wants to be an erotic thriller about a woman who becomes sexually involved with a New York homicide detective investigating a murder in her neighborhood, but misses the mark by a mile.

Story

Only mildly titillating and not especially thrilling, the wannabe erotic thriller In the Cut isn't able to rise to the occasion, so to speak. This yawner stars Meg Ryan as Frannie, a depressed creative writing teacher in New York who keeps mostly to herself, unless it's to get together with her slutty half-sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Wary about love, Frannie's seen how messed up relationships can get. The last guy Frannie dated, an mentally unstable med student (Kevin Bacon), is stalking her, while crazy sis Pauline is currently stalking a married man who has a restraining order against her. These people have serious issues, and dour Frannie figures its easier just to fantasize about men and masturbate (hey, don't we all?). Then she meets Det. James Malloy (Mark Ruffalo), an aggressive yet charismatic cop who questions her about the brutal murder of a woman in the neighborhood. Things get all screwy (in more ways than one), when the attraction between Frannie and Malloy grows and the slick detective ends up taking Frannie to some new sexual heights, while at the same time strange occurrences are making her suspect Malloy is the murderer. Aw, she's just so negative. It all comes to a head, so to speak, as the real murderer comes to light, blah, blah, blah--but all we want to know is, will Frannie finally find a good anti-depressant?

Acting

Along with so many actresses, Meg Ryan apparently believes dying her hair brown, wearing no makeup and sporting a sour, and, we suspect, surgically enhanced, face (she looks more nauseated than anything) gives her dramatic heft. And what about that gutsy move of showing a little frontal? Stop the presses--America's sweetheart bares her soul and her breasts! Unfortunately, it all backfires. The usually perky Ryan can't dig deep enough to inhabit Frannie's miserable persona, even though she's had practice (remember When a Man Loves a Woman and Courage Under Fire) and with In the Cut, she comes off looking worse than ever, literally and figuratively, with a wrist-slitting performance that only proves comedies will forever be her forte (where's Sally when you need her?) As the skanky cop, Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me) fares a bit better but still, telling a woman all the things you want do to her in bed in a flat, emotionless voice doesn't help his case as a sexually provocative leading man. If Ryan's Frannie was not so lifeless, maybe she and Malloy could have sizzled, but they never connect. The always-good Leigh would have made a much better Frannie. As disturbed Pauline, she turns in the most interesting performance of the film.

Direction

Director Jane Campion (The Piano) admits 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, about an emotionally distant prostitute who helps a detective solve a string of murders. In the Cut tries to be Klute--sans Jane Fonda's Oscar-winning performance as the prostitute and Donald Sutherland's superb turn as the smitten detective. Campion's film lacks both stellar performances and the street grit that made those older films so powerful, though she does give the film the same drab, grimy look of a '70s indie film to match the mood of her main characters (and what fun that is). Plus, the way she annoyingly films scenes out of focus makes you think you've got myopia--the periphery is constantly out of focus. Rather than being artsy, all this does is trigger a headache.

Bottom Line

As much as In the Cut wants to push the envelope with its sexuality, and as much as Meg Ryan wants to win an Academy Award, unfortunately, neither makes the cut.