Susanna Moore's notoriously explicit novel gives director Jane Campion another opportunity to explore her favourite theme - the self-destructive elements of female desire. Meg Ryan stars as Frannie Avery, a New York teacher who falls for Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo), a man who's all wrong for her, yet helps Avery to get in touch with herself and experience unknown pleasures. But Malloy is enigmatic, if not dangerous - he's investigating a series of murders in her neighbourhood that he himself might have committed. And it's not only Ryan who's in trouble, but also her half-sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Campion's trademark off-kilter camerawork matches the increasingly skewed world view of her protagonist and Ryan is a revelation, albeit doing an impression of a fragile Nicole Kidman (who acts as producer and was originally going to star). Ultimately, the film works as a study of sexual longing, but fails as a thriller. The plot mechanics are too obvious, the twist too predictable and the novel's original, searing ending has been changed. Despite the frank talk and naked bodies, this is just another Hollywood cop-out.

A New York City writing professor, Frannie Avery, has an affair with a police detective who is investigating the murder of a beautiful young woman in her neighborhood.