|
|
|
In The Cut
R4 - Australia - Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (5th October 2004). |
|
The Film
 For a number of years dating back to the mid 1980's filmmaker Jane Campion has been well known in New Zealand, having directed a few films including the well received short film After Hours and her 1989 award-winning feature Sweetie gained Campion a certain level of notoriety within the film industry. In 1993 Campion released what is now regarded as her landmark film, the haunting drama about a mute woman and her daughter sent to New Zealand for an arranged marriage, the only form of comfort to this woman is her piano. The Piano garnered critical acclaim worldwide, won the Palm D'Ore at Cannes (Campion is the only woman to have won this award) and also won three Academy Awards from eight nominations, including one for Campion for Best Original Screenplay. Unfortunately Campion's follow-up projects have left a lot to be desired, both Portrait of a Lady and Holy Smoke failed to make a mark, despite their star power. And after a four-year break Campion has returned to the screen with a project unlike her pervious, In The Cut is a serial killer film that is both dark and raw, features fine performances but on the whole doesn't really break any new ground in the genre. Based on the best-selling novel by Susanna Moore In The Cut follows the story of Frannie (Meg Ryan) a lonely teacher who is compiling a slang dictionary, arranges to meet a student of hers at a downtown bar. While looking for the bathroom she witnesses a prelude to a brutal homicide. Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) and his partner investigate the murder, after asking Frannie some questions, intrigued by her Malloy asks her out for a drink, but things soon heat up and Frannie enters into a risky erotic liaison that expose the darker side of passion and the boundaries of obsession, as the investigation continues Frannie remembers small details that lead her to a discovery that not only endangers herself but her sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and the more she learns about the detective, the more she begins to suspect that he may in some way be connected to the homicide. Upon release the film generated some mixed reviews, some panned the film for being nothing but a cliche thriller with sex thrown in to make it interesting, while others heralded it as a bold work for both Ryan and Campion. As I understand it this DVD features the longer cut, as not seen in cinemas, which basically constitutes of more explicit shots. This film is basically a paint-by-numbers thriller that doesn't bring anything new to the table, however the film does have it's saving grace, the performances from both Ryan and Ruffalo are quite genuine and the two share a chemistry that is very believable. Unfortunately the semi soft-core porn masks Ryan's performance, but if you put that aside (I know it may be difficult) you'll find a wonderful performance that seems both vulnerable and strong, especially during the scenes she shares with Ruffalo. Additionally the colour scheme and photography match the mood quite well and add a heightened sense of danger to the overall tone of the film. Some may find the film a tad too long for what it is, long takes and some dialogue scenes often seem tedious (like the cafe scene with Frannie and her sister, before stalker John butts in) and could have been cut, also a sub-plot involving an ex-boyfriend/stalker John Graham (Kevin Bacon) although Bacon's performance was fantastic, the sub-plot never went anywhere and could have been dropped. The film also suffes from not knowing what to do with characters, Campion builds a sexual awkwardness between Frannie and her student that eventually leads nowhere and only leaves the viewer wondering what if...These unanswered sub-plots are a little annoying. The film does eventually get back on track in the third act but only to give away a rather transparent ending. Although I have not seen the shorter theatrical version, it leaves me wondering whether that version is actually any better simply because of its shorter running time.
Video
Presented in the film's original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1, this anamorphic transfer is generally quite sharp for a film which is very dark (as it takes place at night). Since this is the case and it's a fairly recent film you'd expect that black levels are bold and shadow detail to be immaculate, this is almost the case where shadow detail does vary from scene to scene but in general never really shows any signs of low level noise. The colour scheme feels somewhat saturated but this is a creative decision rather than a transfer issue, in this instance the colours are rendered accurately. Aside from several instances of film grain there are no other flaws I could detect, this is an A grade transfer.
Audio
This disc includes three separate audio tracks in English, Hungarian and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, for the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English soundtrack. This is mostly a dialogue driven film and the dialogue is always clear and is never distorted, that aside the surround channels are always in use, mainly with the music score and atmospheric sounds of which, demonstrate excellent separation throughout the channels. Overall this is a very good soundtrack. This disc also features optional subtitles in English, Spanish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Polish, Croatian, Czech, Romanian, Serbian and Slovenian.
Extras
Columbia Tristar have included a few extras that include a commentary, 2 featurettes and some trailers. Below is a closer look at each extra on this disc. The first extra you'll come across on this disc is the feature-length audio commentary by director Jane Campion and producer Laurie Parker. The two discuss aspects of the film ranging from cast to locations and to story elements, they two also veer into general discussion about the technical aspects of the film. There are some quite moments throughout and the two are quite soft spoken so this might seem a bit tedious to some but it's worth a listen as they manage to cover a lot about the film. Up next we have a short featurette entitled Frannie Avery's Slang Dictionary running at just 2 minutes 34 seconds this is a piece defining the slang words the character in the film is compiling for her book. Interesting but won't garner repeated viewing. The next featurette is entitled In The Cut: Behind The Scenes this 15 minute 42 second piece is the standard EPK style featurette which, briefly gives the viewer a general rundown of about the characters and the film featuring interviews with the primary cast and crew edited with some footage from the set. Finally we also get the film's theatrical trailer plus bonus trailers for Auto Focus, Wild Things II, Sin and Motives
Packaging
The packaging states that this is a Region 4 release, it is in fact encoded for Region 2 as well.
Overall
In The Cut is a dark serial killer film that doesn't really break any new ground in the genre, but aside from this features some fine performances that drive the film especially from Ryan and Ruffalo. The DVD features a great audio and visual transfer but the extras do leave a lot to be desired, the commentary is certainly worth a listen but the featurettes have very little on the way of substance, also the UK region 2 included some deleted scenes why these where not included on this disc is anyone's guess.
|
|||||
|