Feels ahead of its time in that these days it would easily fit alongside the "how living as a woman is so much scarier than living as a man because of men" movies like Never Rarely Sometimes Always, The Assistant, and Promising Young Woman (and, to a degree, Wild). I still remember the stink that was raised about how bad this movie was when it was released (I thus conveniently skipped it at the time), but this kind of subject has always been on Jane Campion's mind, and I guess the rest of the world just had to catch up. And I think In the Cut is very good at detailing this terrain, but it's just undermined by its plot. Or, more specifically, it's undermined by having to adhere to the genre tropes it's knowingly subverting. This is an erotic thriller seen from the point of view of the lead woman (and usually femme fatale, though not in this case), but though, through its concerns, it shows it would rather break away from the framework of the erotic thriller, it won't. I think the ending could have gone in other ways that would have distracted us less from what it was doing well, and that would have made it more impactful. It's enough to show us how Meg Ryan's character is damaged enough by men's actions to the point where she is paranoid and can't trust men, and it's beautifully juxtaposed by her sexual desires which means she can't remove herself from men. The ending (from the point of what happens with her sister (deplorable) on through to the finish) too directly crystallizes her fears, and then ultimately relieves the tension. It would have been better if those fears remained unknowable and amorphous (e.g., what if the ending had Mark Ruffalo's detective saying they caught the guy, but in the back of Ryan's character's mind she can never be sure?). The whole ending cheapens the movie, and maybe there was a point to be made that they could make this kind of movie from a different p.o.v., yet still stick with the conventions. The strategy didn't work for general audiences, who seemed to hate the movie. Today, it's the deeper themes, as well as Campion's ambitions and style, and Ryan's performance, that stand out. One nice thing about art is that it always has a chance to find a second life.