Review of "In The Cut" (2003)

Based on Susanna Moore's popular novel, In the Cut focuses on the wordy world Frannie (Meg Ryan), an emotionally stifled English teacher. As she contends with her loosely bound half-sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who lives above a strip club, and a disturbing student (Sharrieff Pugh) who is just a little too fascinated with John Wayne Gacy, Frannie finds herself drawn into the sticky web of a murder investigation when a dribbling, dismembered corpse turns up in the garden underneath her bedroom window.

Before you can say "yuck", it's time to do that other thing that ends in u-c-k, and Frannie's hurtling headlong into bed with the surly, mustachioed lead detective on the case, Malloy (Mark Ruffalo). Directed and produced by females (Jane Campion, and executive producer Nicole Kidman) In The Cut isn't shy about showing all the kibbles and bits on both sexes. Ryan and Ruffalo are happy to oblige, but the so-called erotic scenes are surprisingly ho-hum(mer). The murder scenes - despite slaughterhouse-worthy buckets of blood, hacked heads, and bodiless body parts - are also rather flat and perfunctory.

One of the seemly slow plot points that works is Frannie's word-obsession. She does everything from clipping Shakespeare quotes to collecting street slang. The words form a collage in her home, telling anyone who cares to look all about her. Some of these reading and writing scenes do go on a bit too long, but in principle the tic works for the character.

While In the Cut is terribly uneven and starts off at a snail's pace, I must admit that if you stick with it, it does draw you in and keeps you guessing as to who could be killing these poor girls (one or two of whom have a penchant for down 'n dirty oral pleasures and tacky blue nail polish). Who could it be? The prim teacher herself, unleashing an inner demon? Is it the tight-lipped but loose-tongued cop and his hairy mustache? Or could it be his creepy partner with the flat, lifeless eyes? Might it be the weirdo stalker with the ugly dog? What about the pooch - maybe he's ambidextrous with a hack saw? Or possibly it's the student who turns in his school papers written with blood? So many suspects, so little time!

That is not entirely true - perhaps there is just a little too much time. Had Campion and her editor tightened things up a bit with more horror and less Horatio, then In the Cut might have been a exciting little nail-biter of a thriller. As it sits, don't break out the nail file just yet; it's a good rental but not a keeper.

The unrated edition of In the Cut has about a minute of footage not seen in theaters. The more explicit addition shows about 30 extra seconds of a voyeuristic scene set in the dark basement of a bar, and then an intimate interlude involving Ryan and Ruffalo lasts about 20 seconds longer.

The commentary by director Jane Campion and producer Laurie Parker is interesting; how many other commentaries can you name in which "casting of the dildo" is discussed? There's also a could've-been-clever-but-ain't "Frannie Avery's Slang Dictionary" featurette; and a toothless "Behind the scenes" featurette.

Review by Staci Layne Wilson for Horror.com