I had really high hopes that "In the Cut" would possibly be the best erotic thriller since "Basic Instinct".  Director Jane Campion has made a few marvelous films like "The Piano" and "Sweetie" and she cast "In the Cut" with some very good actors.  Unfortunately, this film which tried to be a cross between "Seven" and "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" fails miserably with just about every aspect of the production except for the acting

      Meg Ryan plays Frannie who is a very introverted and messed-up teacher who just happens to like talking dirty with her sister Pauline (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh).  They live overtop a strip bar and one day one of the strippers gets brutally murdered.  Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) is the main cop on the case and starts to question Frannie because a witness says she was in the bar the night of the murder.  Well, for some reason Malloy starts to fall for the hopelessly depressing Frannie and they begin a relationship.  However, some signs begin to appear which make Frannie start to believe that Malloy is actually the murderer and she is torn between knowing the truth or continuation the relationship.  Enter Frannie's ex-boyfriend (Kevin Bacon) who obviously has mental problems and who is stalking Frannie in order to get her back.  So, the story moves on with us wondering if Frannie might end up one of the victims, if Mallow is a sick cop who murders girls, or if the ex-boyfriend is behind all the murders.

      Let me start with saying that this film had the worst sound that I've ever heard from a movie before.  Most of the dialogue was so muted and mumbled that every time I started to eat my popcorn, the noise from the bag made it impossible to hear what the characters were saying.  If the volume of the dialogue was made this low on purpose, then Campion should personally refund the ticket price!

      Much of the camera work was done with either an erratic, unsteady style or with scenes out of focus that made watching this dull film even harder to sit through.  Now, I can appreciate that this technique was supposed to make us understand what the world looked like from Frannie's warped sense of view.  Maybe this was a neat trick but I didn't care that much for it and I don't think it had the effect that Director Campion wanted.  Many scenes appear to be very disjointed.  Characters go from one place to another without any explanation or apparent reason other than to advance the plot.  The editor of this film was really asleep at the wheel.

      The acting all-around is very good and gives the only reason to possibly see this film.  Just as in "The Piano", Campion is compelled to show us both male and female nudity and, in both films, this frankness of the sex appears to have a purpose in this film and not just to titillate.  The big problem with the actors is with the characters that they are portraying.  I didn't really care what happened to any of them.  The fact that they all seemed to mumble all their dialogue throughout the film made me pretty much want all the characters to get killed anyway.  Frannie is such a drab and unappealing person that it is hard to feel any sympathy for her.  And Meg Ryan plays her this way to the hilt.  The ending seems to come out of nowhere and is so contrived that it is more hilarious than it is shocking.

      In conclusion, I thought the premise of the story was intriguing but thought the execution of the story was a miserable failure.  Maybe I just expected so much more from this movie and that this anticipation of a great erotic thriller made the resulting film that much more of a disappointment.  I don't recommend this film, but if you do see it I do suggest wearing a hearing aid turned up to full volume.