bix171
06-20-2004, 12:47 AM
While not impossible, it’s unlikely that a world-class director such as Jane Campion could make something unwatchable and while “In The Cut” is a disappointment, no two ways about it, it’s still an interesting disappointment. Perhaps it’s the flaws that make it so. Campion’s approach, intentional sloppiness, with Dion Beebe’s handheld camerawork all over the place (much like an episode of “N.Y.P.D. Blue”) mingled with a saturated color scheme, is quite agreeable, but she never really finds her focus and though it’s kind of fun to see her dip her toes into lurid melodrama, the film’s intentions are never declared. Campion works hard to downplay her artier tendencies in this sweltering tale of sexual transgression mixed with serial murder but, try as she might, her studied visual sense mingles a bit too easily with her apparently instinctual feel for New York City; she effortlessly captures the sensuously steamy claustrophobia and indiscriminate grime that defines both the lure and repulsion of the city. Meg Ryan stars as a professor who gets involved with a detective (Mark Ruffalo) who may or may not be a killer of young women; like Diane Lane in “Unfaithful”, Ryan works overtime to shed her good-girl film persona (while enhancing her own scandalous off-screen behavior), but unlike Lane, she seems fearlessly entranced by the possibilities (no doubt brought on by working with a director of Campion’s stature) and she’s convincingly sexy. With Jennifer Jason-Leigh (wasted) as Ryan’s half-sister and an uncredited Kevin Bacon. It’s a shame this film can’t be recommended because it has a lot going for it. But it just doesn’t feel right.