In the Cut (2003)

When a young woman is murdered in New York, one of the investigating police officers encounters local teacher “Frannie” (Meg Ryan) in whose garden the body was found and whilst investigating the crime, “Molloy” (Mark Ruffalo) and she start to have an affair. It’s a sexually-charged arrangement but the more she sees him, the more she begins to suspect that his belief in there being a serial killer is correct, but might it actually be “Molloy” who is up to no good? It’s creepily shot and paced, but I’m afraid that a couple of nude scenes and some explicitly dirty chatter don’t really do anywhere near enough to make this film stand out. The plot is derivative; the denouement rushed and aside from Ryan more erotically reprising her famous diner scene from “When Harry…” (1989) there really isn’t a thing memorable about this film at all. Perhaps the more graphic A-lister sex scenes caused more of a stir in the USA, but for those of us brought up on European detective yarns, some brutal serial killing intermingled with some shagging isn’t anything new, innovative or especially compelling to watch. It does look good, but it’s not a very memorable or scary exercise otherwise.