In the Cut

A well shot dreadful screenplay. The two distinct and notably discordant halves can't be linked together either by a crucial twist that kicks off the final chaos, nor by the desperately bewildered Meg Ryan. The overly long exchanges do not help you understand the characters, and the flashy flashbacks might blunt the boredom, but in the end, they remain mere empty inserts. The erotically inclined storyline of Frannie's personal life then irritates you with its openness, which instead of aiding the story, buries it under layers of lascivious and unfortunately occasionally ridiculous scenes. The biggest problem, however, is when lofty phrases appear in the dialogue or the monologues, which the heroes simply squander emptily. It's a shame for the unpredictable Mark Ruffalo, who doesn't deserve to have a movie like this in his filmography; the rest remains a pitiful, albeit occasionally striving, false start. (01/09/2007)

Un thriller meurtrier enveloppé d'une atmosphère mélancolique. Jane Campion a une âme troublée et aime l'exprimer à travers des images cinématographiques. Cependant, elle ne devrait pas s'aventurer là où elle ne s'orienterait pas. Du point de vue du thriller, l'intrigue progresse terriblement lentement, le film est ennuyeux, prévisible et dans un dénouement surprenant, plutôt naïf que choquant et captivant. Et ce détail controversé du début, "la prostitution", n'est présent dans le film que pour susciter la discussion. (20/11/2003)

Visually, it’s very well done (camera, editing, flashbacks, fast-paced scenes), but the director struggled with the content, resulting in a bland genre mix that might be enjoyable, but it probably won't last in memory longer than a few hours. For a shocking women's drama, it lacks more dramatic moments, for a thriller, a better screenplay, and as an erotic film, it probably wouldn't hold up either. It did have a really suffocating atmosphere, Meg Ryan was very daring, but she could have jumped upside-down and it wouldn't have changed the quality of the film. (09/08/2004)