Blu-ray Review: IN THE CUT – 20th Anniversary Uncut Director’s Edition

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May 28, 2023 Posted by Kyle Nolan in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

New York City high school teacher Frannie Avery (Meg Ryan) is working on a new book about street slang. While meeting with student Cornelius (Sharrieff Pugh) at a pool hall for a research session, she heads downstairs to use the bathroom, and sees a woman performing oral sex on a man in a backroom. She’s turned on by what she sees, and can’t look away. It’s too dark to see the man’s face, but she’s pretty sure that he could see hers. The next day, Frannie runs into Detective Giovanni Malloy (Mark Ruffalo), who’s canvassing her apartment building, investigating a string of murders/de-articulations, the latest of which was the woman Frannie saw in the pool hall. Frannie notices a tattoo on Malloy’s hand that looks similar to the one she saw on the man in the basement, but if it was Malloy, he doesn’t let on if he recognizes her. There is an attraction between them, and he gives her his card.

Ever since the pool hall, Frannie has been horny, and having nightly sex dreams. There’s something about Frannie that seems to attract the wrong kind of guys. First her student flirts with her, then she finds an ex she dated only twice (Kevin Bacon, uncredited) stalking her outside her apartment, and now Detective Malloy is asking her out. She begins a hot and heavy, steamy physical relationship with Malloy, but there is still a serial killer on the loose. Is Detective Malloy who he says he is, or did he know the victim?

I had never heard of In The Cut before receiving it for review. I have never really been a Jane Campion fan—I generally find her work to be extremely boring and severely overrated. So I went into this movie with low expectations, and even those weren’t met. While some of the camera angles and tight shots were interesting, it felt like the film sacrificed any plot and story for the sake of the graphic sex scenes. The murder storyline felt almost like an afterthought, and just an excuse to bring Malloy and Frannie together. It is constantly forgotten, even by Malloy, who’s supposed to be investigating it. The “relationship” between Frannie and Malloy is like watching a ping pong game, on again/off again, with little to no explanation. The Kevin Bacon character makes no sense—here is a guy Fannie went on two dates with and is now stalking her and showing up inside her house (more times than the number of actual dates), but she doesn’t call or talk to the cops (even though she’s having sex with one), instead, treating him more like an old friend who she found crashing at her home.

None of these characters are very likeable. Frannie only has one thing on her mind, her half-sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is having an affair with a married man, Malloy is crass and explicit in his language (which felt like it was there just for shock value) and he seems to ignore any potential conflict of interest with his case, his partner Detective Rodriguez (Nick Damici) is blatantly homophobic and excessively-macho, and so on. So there’s not really anyone to even root for. I saw some articles pointing to this film as the end of Meg Ryan’s movie career, and I kind of see why. Gone is the fun, loveable and wholesome rom-com Meg Ryan who made audiences fall in love with her in things like When Harry Met Sally…, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, etc. There’s no fun to her character—she’s just depressing and obsessed with sex. I’m sure both she and Ruffalo were hoping this would be their big “brave” film as they both bare all in some graphic, frontal nude scenes, but I just couldn’t wait for the film to be over.

In The Cut arrives on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment. The company had previously released the film as part of a double-feature Blu-ray along with Trapped. The disc only includes the director’s cut of the film, which appears to just be a minute longer than the theatrical cut. I found the picture quality a bit underwhelming. It did not feel like I was watching a true HD picture, especially in the darker scenes, which came off a bit blocky and noisy. Oddly, just like what Mill Creek did with their recent release of London, they have opted for an English 2.0 DTS-HDMA audio track, rather than the 5.1 track that was used for previous disc and digital releases of this movie, including their own previous double-feature Blu-ray release! While the new track provides clear dialogue, the audio is all from the front, and never gives any kind of immersive feeling. Sony’s previous DVD release of this film included both cuts as well as an audio commentary and several featurettes, but none of that bonus material has been ported over. Instead this new Blu-ray is a barebones release with just a subtitle on/off menu option. The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a standard HD keepcase, without a slipcover. There is no digital copy included.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:59:10)

1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English

Extras:

Final Thoughts:

My Rating

Film:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Skip It

I have never been a fan of Jane Campion’s work, and this film is par for the course. Much like its main character, In The Cut becomes too obsessed with its sex scenes and loses track of the plot and characters. What could have been an interesting murder mystery gets too bogged down with unlikeable characters and their on again/off again physical relationship. Mill Creek’s release doesn’t really provide any improvement in picture and sound—it’s even an audio downgrade from their own previous Blu-ray release—and loses all of the bonus material from Sony’s previous DVD release, so even fans will likely not find this worth a double-dip, especially if they already own Mill Creek’s previous double feature Blu-ray release. Unfortunately, I don’t think this film is worth spending the time on.