While it’s unusual to picture Meg Ryan playing a desperate, sexually deprived city woman, her performance in Jane Campion’s “In The Cut” might call for re-examination by some of her more dedicated watchers. People won’t have to examine too carefully, however. Ryan bares all in this new murder mystery, adapted by Campion and Susanna Moore from Moore’s novel of the same name.
The normally cute and charming Ryan stars as Frannie, an English teacher and slang researcher who seems strangely unfulfilled. The cause of her apparent unhappiness, which she awkwardly expresses to her half-sister and close friend Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), is never made clear but is ultimately simplified as intense sexual dissatisfaction. Meanwhile, a murder has occurred in the neighborhood, Franny is thought to have details.
Enter Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo), the purposefully suspect yet weirdly appealing future love interest. The reasons behind Frannie’s attraction to him aren’t obvious, but he seems to be just what she is seeking for sexual fulfillment — even though she is suspicious of his intentions from the start. Their chemistry on the screen, sexual and otherwise, is strangely natural and makes for an appropriately mysterious ambiance throughout their interactions. Ryan graphically makes Frannie’s desperation come to life, and Ruffalo complements this with his smooth, comforting nature.
“In The Cut” manipulates the audience into guessing what may or may not be predictable. A lengthy venture results, and the audience is employed as detectives. Unfortunately, the answers take forever to arrive, and just when solutions seems to be presenting themselves, the mystery is elongated instead. When the answer finally does show up, it’s in the context of an unnecessarily lengthy and fairly uninteresting scene.
Luckily, good acting throughout the film keeps the poorly structured plot intact. The leads and supporting performers provide a sound basis for the story’s progression, and in a bizarre casting move, the unbilled Kevin Bacon delivers an impressive performance. However, his role is inexplicably restricted to merely a cameo, and his character in the film develops poorly as a result.
“In The Cut” is full of failed attempts at symbolism. Frannie’s past involving her father comes up as a parallel to her current situation, but no light is shed on why that might be significant. Likewise, a number of advertisements in subway cars that for some reason incorporate deep proverbial sayings are meant to operate as symbols for Frannie’s life, but fail to do so effectively. At one point one of Frannie’s students mentions serial killer John Wayne Gacy as “a victim of desire.” Metaphors like this were probably more efficiently employed in Moore’s novel and have fallen victim to screen adaptation; they seem incoherently strewn about the film’s portrayal of the story.
Ultimately “In the Cut” is a very well-done, well-scripted and well-acted murder mystery. The twists and turns that seem to define such films these days are not too complex, but not too predictable, and that’s good. But it remains a murder mystery, and that allows for only so much engagement between the viewers and the performers. Though the movie is executed nicely, perhaps its biggest mistake was following the same path of so many of its unsuccessful predecessors. B
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