Yes, Cutter's (Day-Lewis) accent is intriguing...it's a an attempt to recreate as authentically as possible, a mid-19th century New York accent, an extinct accent as it were (the accent has evolved and surely there are many elements remaining, such as when the article refers to a 50's NY Brooklyn cabbie). But they hired professional linguists and researched assiduously to authenticate it as closely as possible. So Day-Lewis had to, in effect, create an original accent, something the modern ear has never heard before. Pretty cool, huh?