This overripe Jane Campion film is just as pretentious and oblique as LOOKING FOR MISTER GOODBAR was melodramatic and blunt. Yes, I found this to be a loose rehash of the old disco potboiler that gave Diane Keaton a chance to dish out the sleaze to counter-balance her plucky comedic image. Campion's film allows Meg Ryan to do the same, and this motive is annoyingly obvious while viewing IN THE CUT. I'm not familiar with the Susanna Moore novel, but her screenplay here certainly has an annoying air of familiarity to it. The murder plot is conventional and Meg's feminine dilemma is clear enough here, too, but the sleazy environment and graphic sexual moments are uneventful. The flashback romantic fantasy-on-ice is goofy, just like the heavy-handed, fortune-cookie sayings in the subway. At least this is a chick-flick with some welcome dirty passages. Kevin Bacon is a standout in a walk-on role. Mediocre masturbating mostly for Meg and Jane fans.
Review of In the Cut
