"In The Cut" (2003)

Has Meg Ryan quit acting?

Campion isn't exactly the most subtle director. The idea of Meg Ryan nude doesn't sound fun.

They changed the ending of the book. The book ends exactly like Looking For Mr. Goodbar.

I liked the book and did not mind the film.

I don't know... And Jennifer Jason Leigh's character- Its pretty grim.

I'd give it a 6/10.

Definitely not a career ender.

I think the affair with Russell Crowe while making Proof of Life was a big blow to her career. It shouldn’t have been, but it was because she was pegged as America’s sweetheart for a time. Also, Dennis Quaid played up the devastated spouse angle and he revived his career.

The bad plastic surgery and aging out of romcoms sealed the deal.

But ...Mark Ruffalo’s dick!

I enjoyed this movie. I thought Meg Ryan was really good. Very against type. The shot of her bloody, waving down passing cars on the highway has stuck with me.

I think what “ended her career” was her insecurity with aging.

i liked the movie. it was kind of weird, definitely had the indie vibe to it. i didn't mind the sex scene with Mark Ruffalo, he was the sexiest thing about it. I thought the gruesome head in the sink thing was a bit over the top though.

i don't think it was a career ender for her, i think the thing w/Russel Crowe was probably the beginning of the end. i felt like this movie for her was her shedding her "america's sweetheart" image.

I like the film, but it wasn't really erotic at all. Ruffalo was grotesquely sexy but his fuck scenes in The Kids are All Right were much hotter.

Klute was clearly also an influence, down to the "shag" hairdo. It reminded a little of Morvern Callar too. Similarly disaffected protagonists.

She started to look real bizarre at this point so I can see why she retired. Her lip injections, all the plastic surgery—she looked strange.

Nicole Kidman was one of the producers, and I wonder if it was a project she had originally envisioned for herself- then reconsidered.

I don't know if it was intentional, but Meg seems to be doing a Nicole Kidman imitation throughout the film: voice, look, everything.

r12 Yes, Kidman was originally set to starbut had to drop out.

star but*

[quote]Has Meg Ryan quit acting?

Did she ever start?

It's still shocking how Meg Ryan ruined her face. And not just ruined it but why? It's just sad. I thought plastic surgery was to improve looks but I guess it doesn't.

I remember seeing it in the theatre and I thought Ruffalo was really hot, Ryan was okay but not spectacular. I think she never really fulfilled her initial promise. She was very charismatic in Top Gun, DOA and When Harry Meets Sally. But they never really knew what to do with her. The romantic comedies typecast her and the bad plastic surgery killed her chances.

This film is on Netflix and I'm watching it for the first time now. I agree with OP.

Sally in when When Harry Met Sally was the perfect role for her, I don’t think she could ever have topped it even if she hadn’t ruined her face. The days of the week underpants, “high maintenance but think you’re low maintenance,” etc. I wonder if that level of success messed with her head and explains the plastic surgery?

I remember seeing it when it came out and I couldn't understand the hostility to the movie and Meg Ryan. I do remember that the affair with Russel Crowe seemed to forever change the way people viewed her and she managed to blow her sweetheart image apart with that. I haven't seen the movie in some time but I remember buying a copy of the DVD from a sale bin years ago and it's still in it's packaging. I think I bought it because of the male nudity which I now suspect was done with prosthetics.

Jack Quaid, while attending NYU, had to endure the sight of his mother's raunchy scenes from "In the Cut" during a screening of "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema."

What added to the scandal of the Crowe affair was them both denying it when first getting caught, the press chased harder because of being called liars, and they were caught again. Then it was a HUGE scandal.

Moral of the story, never lie when the press have caught you out. Dumbest move ever.

As Tom Hanks has said more times than necessary: Meg Ryan is definitely NOT perky in real life!

I remember Meg was in In the Cut (2003) and in Against the Ropes (also early 2000s, a flop boxing movie) and then...nothing...long pause...then resurfaced in the str8-to-DVD My Mother's Boyfriend (worst title ever, with Antonio Banderas)...then...nothing? She's been outta the spotlight for soooo long.

She kept trying to be a serious performer but she was kind of a joke because of all the rom-coms.

I used to avoid her movies and it would piss me off when she would pop up in supporting roles in Hurly Burly or Restoration, out of her depth and using her wide eyed schtick. It pissed me off she jagged a Jane Campion film (which even a decade after The Piano was kind of a big deal) and I remember watching it with a kind of disappointment and bitterness. I felt she ruined it. I'm glad she retired but even now she's snooty about how she fucked up her face through vanity and acts like discussing looks is beneath her. She traded on her looks for years

She directed a war movie she was in and roped Tom Hanks into playing her husband who died. I read an article about it. I think it sank without a trace instead of launching a new career for her.

There was press around the time of her affair with Crowe about how she chose him for that movie they were in together so she could go after him. Between that and not staying in her rom-com lane (and being quoted shitting on her rom-coms) and fucking up her face without acknowledging it, she just doesn't seem smart or likeable.

All those years at the top of the heap she must have had a Pat Kingsley type managing her and her PR. They probably gave up on her when she decided she didn't want to be America's sweetheart anymore.

I liked this film quite a bit. More for mood and tone than the plot (and I think Jane Campion had a similar hierarchy of interest). The ending is a massive disappointment - was certain it was building up to something much bleaker.

I re-watched this recently. I'd only seen once when it first came out, just in order to see Ruffalo's dick. But it has acquired a bizarre cult following amongst cineastes who see it as a forgotten masterpiece. Um, no. It's just not nearly that good, or daring, or brave as people want to pretend. It's dumb schlock, arted-up in the most pretentious way.

OMG, Meg is a hippy (and Jim Morrisin's gf) in The Doors (1991), now on Hulu. I'm watching it for the first time.

I hated that she was in The Doors, too...

"It's my dream to see Meg Ryan topless!"

I have a fondness for this movie and the era in which it came out. It was the kind of thing you would rent from Blockbuster on DVD, and be some combination of weirded out / turned on / bored by it. I miss those days.

But yeah, it’s not as deep as it thinks it is and has a bit of a cliched and derivative ‘arthouse’ style of filming and photography. Meg Ryan is fine, if not amazing. I like her in some of those intellectual battle-of-the-sexes roles (When Harry Met Sally, French Kiss) but I agree she never reached her potential.

She did have ONE good movie after this in her trout pout era where she played a woman suffering from cancer. Kristen Stewart and Olympia Dukakis were in it too.

R31 I totally agree with you. I actually really like this film and have never fully understood why it's so loathed. It is extremely atmospheric and the story kept my attention. Solid performances, too—Jennifer Jason Leigh is an unsung highlight of this film. Mark Ruffalo's cock is another bonus (my god was he hot). The book is a very good piece of writing IMO—Susanna Moore's economy of words is very strong. It's a haunting novel.