Product Details

• Actors: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Micheal Nuccio, Allison Nega
• Directors: Jane Campion
• Writers: Jane Campion, Stavros Kazantzidis, Susanna Moore
• Producers: Effie Brown, François Ivernel, Laurie Parker, Nicole Kidman
• Format: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Dubbed: French
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click .
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: February 10, 2004
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (225 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000ZMGWK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,941 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "In the Cut (Unrated Director's Cut)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Based on Susanna Moore's popular novel, In the Cut centers on Frannie (Meg Ryan), an emotionally stifled English teacher who gets steamy with sultry Malloy (Mark Ruffalo, You Can Count On Me), a cop who's investigating a series of brutal murders--but Frannie soon suspects that Malloy may be the killer. As a psychological thriller, In the Cut is heavier on psychology than thrills; the story is a skeleton that director Jane Campion (The Piano, An Angel at My Table) cloaks in one of the most nightmarish visions of urban life since Taxi Driver or Seven, accompanied by lots of explicit sex. The movie's dark tone will put some viewers off, but Ruffalo's effortless magnetism serves him well; no woman in the audience will question how quickly Ryan falls into bed with him. Also featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh and an uncredited Kevin Bacon. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

This steamy thriller from director Jane Campion ("The Piano") offers star Meg Ryan in revealing nude and sex scenes, as she plays a lonely teacher involved with Mark Ruffalo, a police detective investigating a series of murders in the area. Ryan starts to think Ruffalo is the person responsible for the killings, but this perks her interest in him even more. At the same time, one of Ryan's students and her former lover become chief suspects. With Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kevin Bacon, Sharrieff Pugh. Director's cut; 119 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitles: English, French; audio commentary; featurettes; theatrical trailers. NOTE: This Title Is Out Of Print; Limit One Per Customer.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 73 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Darkly Erotic Thriller! April 3, 2004

By Jana L. Perskie HALL OF FAMEVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

"In The Cut" is an adaptation of Susanna Moore's excellent novel of the same title, published in 1995. Director Jane Campion has departed significantly from the novel in several places, especially with the ending, but has managed to capture much of the book's eroticism, dark edginess, and palpable suspense.

Frannie Avery, superbly acted by Meg Ryan, is an attractive 35 year-old divorcee who lives in a two room apartment on Washington Square. She teaches creative writing at NYU to a group of inner-city teens. She is also a connoisseur and scholar of language and is writing a book on street slang and its derivatives. Frannie takes chances. She is a sexual risk taker. However, she lives in her own private world where she spends an incredible amount of time pondering the nature of language, which leaves her vulnerable to her surroundings...and reality. Frannie is not at all street savvy. And her nearsightedness allows her to disengage even more from the potentially dangerous world in which she lives. One late afternoon, in a neighborhood bar, she makes a trip to the ladies room and inadvertently walks-in on a couple engaged in an intimate act. The man's face is obscured by shadow but she does notice that he has a unique tattoo on the inside of his wrist. A few days later a NYC homicide detective, James E. Malloy (Mark Ruffalo), seeks Frannie out for an interview. There has been a brutal murder in the neighborhood. The victim is the woman Frannie saw performing the sex act in the bar. The evening Frannie saw her was her last.

Malloy takes risks also. He totally defies all rules about relationships between a detective and potential witness and acts on the tremendous sexual attraction between Frannie and himself. Malloy epitomizes the "tough guy with a badge," his frank blunt language adding to Frannie's turn-on. From the first, however, she knew that Malloy had a tattoo on his wrist - a tattoo she had seen once before.

Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Pauline, Frannie's spacey, obsessive half-sister and the person Frannie is closest to and loves. She lives above a topless bar in downtown Manhattan and the affection both women feel for the erotic dancers, the entire ambiance of the club and its proximity to their lives, reestablishes the sense of careless oblivion to danger. Together the two ponder the ups and downs of being female, discuss sexuality and romance and their father's many foibles.

Kevin Bacon is Frannie's off-the-wall ex-boyfriend who stalks her and maintains a threatening presence throughout. And Sharrieff Pugh is excellent as one of Frannie's brightest students who is fixated upon John Wayne Gacy.

Jane Campion, an extraordinary director, has not given us a typical mystery thriller about a vicious serial killer. "In The Cut" is more an exploration of the sexuality and inner life of an intelligent, creative, emotionally starved women approaching middle age. Detective Mallory's aggressive masculinity and the threat of the physical danger which surrounds her jar Frannie awake. The films portrays an urban environment of muted violence just waiting to explode and the colors and sounds of Campion's New York add to the building tension. There are some superbly staged sequences which give a hallucinatory, almost nightmarish quality to the scenes. The intense and honest performances really compensate for the movie's flaws. I found myself totally absorbed. Recommended - but be warned, this is not a movie for the sqeamish or faint of heart!
JANA

83 of 97 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Thriller From an Acclaimed Director October 22, 2003

By ALET1984

To be honest, I kind of thought the movie was going to be bad (I didn't like the book), but I went to see it anyway, since I learned that Jane Campion was the director. Having seen and loved her "Angel at my Table," "The Piano," and "Holy Smoke," I was interested in finding out why exactly this independent New Zealand director left Australia and went, so to speak, "Hollywood." Well, it turns out that Campion was only doing a favor for Nicole Kidman, who was going to play the lead role (Nic decided against it later on, and became one of the executive producers instead).

The film itself is gorgeous to look at, although the camera work is a bit shaky, and there are like... hundreds of meaningless close-ups that can drive you totally crazy. And guess what, Meg Ryan DOES take her top off (if you're interested in that sort of thing). But this movie is also very violent and brutal; I heard it almost got an NC-17 rating (our censors cut out a seven-minute chunk of footage with most shocking sex and violence and rated the film R).

Basically, the story is about a somewhat attractive English teacher named Franny (played by Ryan), who suddenly finds herself in the middle of a police investigation when a girl is found murdered near her house. The lead detective working on the case meets and talks to her, and she's instantly attracted. Then, to make things even more complicated (as if the sexually unruly relationship between her and the police officer wasn't enough), Franny remembers that she saw the dead girl somewhere before.

The story is quite interesting, though the ending is fairly simple and predictable. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who loves "romantic thrillers," but don't expect much from it. The acting is excellent (especially Ryan's), the cinematography is beautiful, the music is good, and the plot won't make you wanna yawn, and that's the important thing.

79 of 101 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars OMG: Meg Ryan as you've NEVER seen her before! October 31, 2003

By Victor Chen

I just came back from watching this movie about an hour ago and wanted to write a review while it's still fresh in my mind. Before anything else, let me just say, Meg Ryan's performance is SPECTACULAR! It's nothing short of breathtaking. I think this is the performance of her career. Ryan boldly sheds her previously earned image as "Amercia's Sweetheart", and completely reinvents herself for this movie. This time, Ryan plays a quiet, sullen, reserved inner city schoolteacher; her character is a contradiciton, introverted and subdued yet at the same time just SEETHING with dark, delicious, pent-up sensuality. I mean, if you're a heterosexual male, you just GOTTA see her! Dayam! Ryan's character "Frannie" is complex and multifaceted, as is the film; it was a risk, but it works. As Eber said, Ryan's performance is utterly flawless. It by itself is completely worth the price of admission, and will direct all attention away from any inadequacies in the plot :-)

Okay, Meg Ryan aside, the movie was a solid thriller that kept me guessing all the way to the end. The obligate murders are gruesomely described, but actual gore on screen is kept at a tasteful minimum. The plot at times border on derivative and uninspired for this genre, but by and large it was tight enough to serve as an adequate vehicle for Ms. Ryan to burn the screen with her presence. (I know, I promise to stop ranting about her).

Director Jane Campion did an outstanding job with the cinematography and the general feel of the film. For example, the camera is deliberately out of focus around the edges during certain scenes, giving the film a surrealistic, dreamy yet visceral feel. Again, this was a risk that surprisingly worked for me. Symbolism in the film is rich and beautiful, especially the poetry written on the subway train walls, read by Ryan's sultry voice in her mind.

And finally, I'd just like to mention that Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is also a dangerously skilled actress (just watch "Single White Female" or "Washington Square") was tragically underused in this film. At her best, Leigh is every bit as good an actress as Ryan, but she simply wasn't given the chance to shine in this movie. For the role of Frannie's sister Pauline, a lesser actress would have done the job, which could have been done instead of wasting Leigh's precious time :-) But I'm still always glad to see her on screen as well.

In closing, if you're even remotely a fan of Meg Ryan, go see this film now! Don't wait, do it now! You WON'T be disappointed. Oh man, Meg Ryan will be in my dreams tonight... ;-)