In the Cut (2003)

There's a couple films like this released every year -- films with obvious merit that get overlooked because everyone's dogpiling their also-glaring flaws. I've been told that Susanna Moore's source novel is unredeemable shit; director/co-writer Jane Campion tackles that problem by ignoring the plot completely. Like Tim Burton with Big Fish, Campion attempts to compensate for her screenplay's shortcomings by aestheticizing the film to within an inch of its existence. It's a stupid, stupid film, yes... but it's also a ravishing and weirdly fascinating one. Lots of strange angles and deliberate uses of out-of-focus shots give the film a quality of a bad dream, and if it's frustrating and oft-pretentious (the literary quotes on the subway were a bad idea) it should also be admired for its audacity. Though a stronger actress may have boosted the film's cause, Meg Ryan does well enough; at the very least, her chemistry with Mark Ruffalo makes the violent swings of the film's central relationship semi-believable. Tries to do too much, and those rare moments when the film deems is necessary to advance the plot are pretty embarrassing; still, it got under my skin. I'll probably end up seeing it again. (Even if Jennifer Jason Leigh is uncharacteristically awful.)

Grade: B-