Review of 'In The Cut'

Billed as a feminist crime thriller, this 2003 film is dominated by murk and sleaze. Everything in New York looks grimy, and the central character - played well by Meg Ryan, rather against type - seems to thread her way in and out of strip joints and very sleazy bars with pool tables and hookers. Lots of well-contructed plot and mis-direction, and totally gripping all the way through - but I did want to have a shower when it finished. So much gore, so much dirty sex and sweat.

I haven't noticed anyone else remark on this, but it reminded me a lot of Klute, and also Looking for Mister Goodbar, both of which dwell on a New York woman's fear of murder by a serial killer - I think Meg Ryan looked quite a lot like Jane Fonda's character, and some of the stairwell shots seemed to evoke the earlier film.

Watched via laptop and VGA cable - our TV only has one HDMI slot, and we've decided to leave the Chromecast permanently in for fear of breaking it. Interestingly this was via paid for BFI Player, which does not support casting from Android - you can watch the film on your phone but you can't cast it, only 'mirror' it, which doesn't work well. And BFI Player crashed at least three times while we watched it - another example of the 'informal' option being better than the paid-for one.