In the Cut
Third reread of the year, and IN THE CUT is as erotic and terrifying as I remembered. Frannie, a creative writing teacher and author, is perplexing yet penetrable as we inhabit her inner desires, including her arousal from being hunted.
It’s always fascinating when writers write about writers. Often, those who take up the pen are inherently voyeuristic. Distant observation, interest in the absurd and provocative, and forbidden explorations fuel the art. Knowing these traits makes Frannie feel familiar and perhaps explains some of her risky behavior—but not all.
From the onset, we learn Frannie blurs boundaries. While having a drink with one of her students, she excuses herself to go to the restroom and stumbles upon a man receiving fellatio from a redhead. Frannie stares, takes note of the tattoo on his wrist, and meets his gaze. She waits until his release before she finds her way out.
Turns out, the redhead was brutally murdered, and Frannie may have seen the killer. When Detectives Malloy and Rodriguez show up to question Frannie about that night, she recognizes one of them—she remembers his tattoo.
The investigation unfolds, and Frannie is drawn into a lurid affair with Detective Malloy, a sexually confident man whose feral impulses prove beguiling. Their encounters push the limits of safety and expose dark desires—like violence and arousal, fear and ecstasy.
Adapted into a film by Jane Campion, starring Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, it’s a bleary nightscape of seduction, satisfaction, and terror. Upon release, the movie was poorly received by critics and audiences and has the distinction of killing Meg Ryan’s career.
However, in recent years, the film has resurged as a masterpiece in subverting the male gaze and examining feminine perversion.
“The difference between male and female perversion. The action of the man is directed toward a symbol, not himself. The woman acts against herself.“
Both the novel and the film portray women exploring pain and pleasure in fear and violence and oscillating between protecting themselves and living free—as a man would do.
“In the cut. From vagina. A place to hide. To hedge your bet. But someplace safe, someplace free from harm.”
