Frannie is a professor of English, trying to teach bright but under achieving urban kids whilst fighting with her own sexual impulses and slight paranoia. When at a bar, Frannie sees a sex act being performed in the toilet, she cannot see the faces of the people, but can see a unique tattoo on the male's wrist. Disturbed but excited by this event she quickly leaves, but is followed by a policeman who informs her that the girl is now dead, decapitated and left in a dump. The detective is Malloy a hard drinking, fast talking New York police cop, who is instantly attracted to Frannie. As they get involved in a steamy and dangerous affair, which fuels both of their flaws, the murder grows more prolific, leaving a trial of body's that grow closer and closer to the delusional English professor. As their relationship grows ever more violent and as Frannie begins to lose grip of what is real and what is fiction she finds herself in more danger than she could ever of imagined.......

From the opening scene the 'look' of In the Cut is established; twirling, pink leaves fall over an urban jungle as the screen scratches and the camera jitters, the haunting slowed-down que sera sera humming in the background. It's genuinely startling, instantly unsettling and from there on in imagery and visuals are used to outstanding effect throughout the film. The bright crimson blood is in stark contrast with the gloomy settings; the motif of old-black-and-white skaters, gracefully spinning through the air evokes old French sensibilities and the sprawling, eclectic nature of Frannie's apartment is a wonderful reflection of her mental state. The flickering scenes, jumping and scratching, burning up reels and off skewed camera work give the film a disturbing off kilter quality. The contrast of beautiful and horrifying make both more potent and chilling and the lingering, drawn out, summer heat slow speed with which the visuals bleed into each other makes for a unique and claustrophobic experience. But the most startling use of visuals comes with Jane Campion's recreation of New York City; vibrant, horrifying, exciting, restricting and sprawling, caught between a nightmare and a dream, never really convincing as a city, more a living, breathing terrifying person; powerful, strong and horrifying.

Jane Campion's direction swings from the sublime to the ridiculous; the detail with which she builds character development and the beauty which she instils into the thing is astounding, her ambitious use of time structure is unsuccessful but startling and she gives the scenes an urgency that grabs you by the collar and hurtles you through the air. Her vision of the murder mystery element is more exciting than her script allows and her ideas about what make thrillers thrilling are genuinely inventive. Many of the scenes are teeth grindingly tense (one involving a dismembered head, a blood soaked bathroom and a hysterical woman comes to mind) and her mix of the intimate and the boundary laden makes for a disturbing watch. But she lets the story unravel without her control; she doesn't rein the material in, pays too much attention to the silliness of the plot and makes some of it seem damn right banal. She can't seem to get into a groove, she can never get a handle of what she wants the pace to be like and so the film keeps stopping and starting. The ending is thought provoking, but desperately rushed and un-engaging and she fails to make it a thrill, she zaps the fun from a lot of the scenes and messes up some of the interaction between Malloy and Fannie.