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When respected art house heavyweight Jane Campion made a foray into genre filmmaking with an erotic thriller starring none other than rom-com queen Meg Ryan, it was met mostly with confusion, albeit not by everyone — Manohla Dargis cannily raved, “Jane Campion’s astonishingly beautiful new film may be the most maddening and imperfect great movie of the year.” Though it was based on Susanna Moore’s 1995 novel and pitched to investors as serial killer romp à la David Fincher’s Se7en, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything the two films have in common except a predilection for severed body parts in surprise locations. Ryan may be at her finest as a dour English teacher pulling a rolling suitcase behind her as she stalks the streets of the Lower East Side looking for thrills. After one of her afternoon dive bar visits plunges her into a brutal murder case, she becomes sexually involved with the brooding homicide detective (Mark Ruffalo at peak steaminess), who may not be who he claims. Dion Beebe’s gauzy and often garish cinematography (he would later work on Michael Mann’s Collateral and Miami Vice) helps transform New York into a sleazy dreamscape, and scene stealer Jennifer Jason Leigh co-stars as Ryan’s vulnerable half-sister. Campion imbues what might have just been another voyeuristic erotic thriller in other hands with startling intimacy, resulting in a film both brutal and delicate, and ready for rediscovery. (RL) 35mm from Sony Pictures Repertory

Preceded by: Meg Ryan Trailer Reel – 35mm