Director Jane Campion and Meg Ryan are two women facing an artistic mid-life crisis.

Campion lost her way with Holy Smoke after the all-conquering The Piano while Ryan has recently had to look on as young pretenders like Reese Witherspoon queer her pitch.

Both needed a kick-start to their careers and this teams them up with unexpectedly rewarding results.

The New Zealand auteur triumphantly moves in a new direction while Ryan confidently displays a range and depth you wouldn't expect.

She plays New York writer Frannie, an old-fashioned romantic, emotionally dying inside and happy to wallow in a world of words.

When a woman is brutally murdered outside her apartment, homicide detective Malloy (Ruffalo) calls by while searching for witnesses.

Brooding and matter-of-fact, he intrigues her and they begin an affair fired by sexual need and Frannie's fascination for the insular cop's hidden side.

As the investigation continues, the bestial levels to which the killer sinks become gorily apparent while Frannie and Molloy's fling grows in dark intensity.

Would it were that simple. It just so happens Frannie is also the object of desire of discarded suitor John (Bacon) and infatuated young student Cornelius (Sharrieff Pugh).

She also clocked a man with an identical tatto to Malloy receiving, er, oral gratification, from the soon-to-be victim in the dingy basement of a bar. So, we're all lined up for a macabre game of Cluedo.

Campion was inspired by the 70s thriller Klute for the feel of this neo noirish affair, with New York superbly rendered as a sweltering, oppressive pressure cooker.

This certainly isn't the Ryan of When Harry Me Sally's simulated orgasm. Baring her soul (and a bit more besides), she is practically unrecognisable as the chick-flick stalwart of old.

Dowdy, apprehensive and weightily intellectual, she completely fills the role of Frannie, blithely splashing out of her depth.

Reminiscent of no-one so much as David Lynch, Campion, whose work is never less than watchable, has fashioned a thriller of rare menace and sensuality.

Tim Evans