Sex, yes, plenty of that; but erotic? Depends what turns you on...
Thriller? Well, yes, if you're into suspense that starts to slide off the rails halfway through and is rolling down a steep embankment long before the end!
I'd partly agree with that IMDb viewer's comment I quoted before going to see 'In the Cut' (Pathé site; Fr, with media in English):
"Don't watch it for the plot/story. Watch it to get a sense of what it feels like to live in New York, or lust after someone who's not really your type but intrigues you anyway. It's a very non-linear, artsy, right-brained exercise..." ('kellang').
Bright, mixed-up, sexy woman in her 30s (Meg Ryan) first meets clever, mixed-up police detective (Mark Ruffalo) when he questions her about a gruesome murder, falls for him, begins to wonder if he's a killer, but then it could always be...
The story by Susanna Moore, contains nothing spectacularly novel. Those who think the film a poor rendering of Moore's book might note that she co-wrote the screenplay with director Jane Campion, who gives us a competent, moderately good film.
Some have compared this with the late Andy Pakula's 'Klute' (IMDb), which I saw back in '72 and vaguely recall for the hot pairing of Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland with a dark decadence which would undoubtedly be dated today.
I'd venture that in 30 years' time, 'In the Cut' might be less dated and less memorable. As in 'Klute', you don't see the murders -- or "de-articulations" -- but the blood, body parts and yuk! they leave in their wake are very much of our gory times.
Ryan plays Frannie, an English literature teacher who stumbles blindly into the most dangerous of dilemmas, driven by lust. I squirmed for her, though, in the train scenes where she spots lines of those subway poetry ads that mark modern métros -- and reads the stuff out loud. Ouch!
For the rest, the movie somehow glides round most of the gaping clichés lying in wait and there were sufficient gasps in a packed house to indicate that not everybody saw some of the twists in a rickety plot well in advance (now out in France, soon on DVD).
For two old dears sitting too noisily next to me the passion was evidently hardcore porn; I found Ruffalo and especially Ryan satisfactorily steamy, sometimes erotic, and about as well matched as the couple in 'Klute' when intensely emotional moments demanded some fine acting.
Equally good was Jennifer Jason Leigh playing Frannie's sex-starved half-sister Pauline. The two get some well-written scenes which are intimate and touchingly convincing.
However, as a whole the movie is too fearfully erratic to be moving or even very successful, despite some fine camerawork and editing, atmosphere laid on by the bucket-load, and valiant efforts by some of the secondary characters who never really get a chance.
As a slice of life, I suppose Campion's New York is as good as any I've imagined, but for a would-be detective and serial slasher thriller, she'd have done better to brush up her police homework and make it even halfway believable.
If it's profound things about women's sexuality or even the "struggle of the sexes" the New Zealander is trying to portray, this movie comes nowhere near the standard of 'The Piano' (1993; IMDb again).
But then that was about repressed sexuality, not routine lust.
"Non-linear", as 'kellang' put it, was a nice way of saying very uneven, while if 'In the Cut' is "artsy", then it's pretentiously so and symbolically studded for a popcorn Saturday night, where some might find some dodgy sepia ice-skating flashbacks and a nightmare moment artistic.
That ice was very thin. The storyline fell right through it. The music was fine, but nothing special and again of its time, but the film is never less than good to look at. Even the moments where you feel sorry for the cast. My vote: 4.5/10.
11:48:53 PM link 
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