Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
A New York City writing professor, Frannie Avery, has an affair with a police detective who is investigating the murder of a beautiful young woman in her neighborhood.
In the Cut is a visually daring erotic thriller directed by Jane Campion, whose distinctive handheld, desaturated, tactile cinematography elevates the material well above genre norms. Meg Ryan's against-type performance is committed and genuinely interesting, stripping away her rom-com persona. However, the plot is muddled and the thriller mechanics are fairly slack, failing to generate real tension or coherent mystery. The ending lands with a whimper rather than a satisfying resolution, feeling abrupt and undercooked. Campion's authorial voice gives it some distinction, but the film remains a flawed, somewhat frustrating genre experiment.