Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Misunderstood on its original release, Jane Campion’s tale of murder, misogyny and female sexuality is ripe for rediscovery.
Frannie (Meg Ryan) is a writer and professor in New York who is disturbed and aroused in equal measure when she voyeuristically watches a couple in a club basement. When the woman is found gruesomely murdered, Frannie becomes entangled with the homicide detective (Mark Ruffalo) investigating the case. But this liaison takes on a danger all its own as the murders continue and she begins to uncover more details about the suspect.
Meg Ryan shrugs off her rom-com association with ease, playing the conflicted but self-assured Frannie with assurance. Paired with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Kevin Bacon (as her obsessive and loathsome ex-boyfriend), this ensemble cast brings alive a seedy and fallen underbelly of New York. As erotically charged as it is disturbing, this feminist murder mystery is holds a tight grip to the final frame.