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A Sony release. Written by Jane Campion and Susanna Moore; directed by Jane Campion; starring Meg Ryan and Mark Ruffalo. Released to DVD on February 13, 2004. Life follows a certain ebb and flow. What you do on one day might not necessarily mean anything at that time, but could well have ramifications in the future. Attempting to create a self-sustaining segment of life on-screen is a tricky proposition. Trickier yet when murder, mystery and mayhem enter the equation, as is the case in writer/director Jane Campion’s In the Cut. Sadly, there is a quick fix to this problem. Instead of spending the time required to have the characters’ actions make sense and fit smoothly within the context of the script, the filmmaker simply crams in the plot points, regardless of whether they work or not. Meg Ryan stars in In the Cut as Frannie Avery, a high school English teacher living in Manhattan. Single, somewhat conservative and content within the confines of her own sheltered existence, Frannie’s life is thrown for a loop when she meets Detective Giovanni Malloy (Mark Ruffalo). Investigating the murder of a woman whose body was found in Frannie's apartment garden, the forthright Malloy makes an immediate impression on her. As the movie progresses and more dead bodies turn up, Frannie begins to wonder if Malloy is more connected than he is letting on. While In the Cut could have easily fallen into the trap of being the next Sharon Stone/Joe Eszterhas sexcapade– I can’t possibly be the only one who noticed the significant number of similarities between this plot summary and Basic Instinct's--Campion’s style and grace served to substantially elevate the proceedings here. Campion specifically chose to keep the tone of In the Cut real, taking obvious pains to remove any elements of gratuitous sex and violence from the film. This allowed the characters to grow and develop, without ever coming off as mere pawns in a larger murder mystery. Campion also decided to shoot the majority of this film with a strange fisheye lens, keeping only a small portion of the screen in focus at one time. As a result of this, there are few hyper close-ups of the actors. Often shooting exterior scenes of Ryan and Ruffalo voyeuristically through the windows of other cars on the street or from down the block or around a corner, Campion successfully heightened the film’s tension creating a claustrophobic, hot and uncomfortable atmosphere ripe for duplicitous dealings and crimes of passion. Ryan performs admirably as Frannie, but it is Ruffalo who walks away with this movie as the intense and thin-skinned Malloy. Comfortably and organically displa.html>spla.html>spla.html>spla.html>splaying a wide range of emotions, the heat and passion of Ruffalo’s performance is a major reason why In the Cut held my interest. With a lesser actor in the role, the did-he-or-didn’t-he question at the core of the film would have quickly become a question of whether anyone cared. In the Cut is a good film, far better than the script deserves, thanks to the subtle behind-the-camera presence of Campion and the solid acting contributions courtesy of Ruffalo, Ryan and the criminally underused Kevin Bacon. Had Campion and Susanna Moore been able to add a little more depth (and motives) to some of the supporting characters, In the Cut would be a mystery for the ages. As it stands though, this is one journey that is far more enjoyable than the actual destination. | |||||
