In the Cut

In the Cut is a 2003 Australian-American mystery and erotic thriller film written and directed by Jane Campion and starring Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Campion's screenplay is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Susanna Moore. The film focuses on a college English professor who becomes entangled with a detective investigating a series of gruesome murders in her Manhattan neighborhood.

The film received a limited release on 22 October 2003 in the United States, and was subsequently given a wide release on Halloween that year in the United States and United Kingdom. The film received negative to mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

High school teacher and writer Frannie Avery meets a student at a local bar, and when she heads to the bathroom sees a woman performing oral sex on a man. A few days later, Detective Giovanni Malloy questions her as he investigates the gruesome murder of a young woman, whose severed limb was found in her garden. They flirt despite the grisly nature of their introduction, and meet at the same bar later. Frannie is alternately thrilled and frightened by the detective's sexual aggressiveness, even as she grows more disillusioned with the attitudes and crude behavior of other men, including the detective's partner, Richard Rodriguez. Even as Malloy defends his partner, who can no longer carry a gun because he threatened his unfaithful wife, he promises he will do anything she wants except hit her. She leaves abruptly and is assaulted walking home, but calls Malloy and their affair begins that night.