Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Yvonne Jodi Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

SnoopyStyle Frannie Avery (Meg Ryan) is a New York City high school English teacher. She is hounded by her ex John Graham. Her half-sister best friend Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) pursues a married man. Frannie meets her student Cornelius Webb at a bar where she becomes entranced by a woman giving oral sex in the back room. Detective Malloy (Mark Ruffalo) interviews her about a body part left outside her window. She fantasizes about Malloy who asks about the incident at the bar. Richard Rodriguez is Malloy's foul-mouthed police partner.Meg Ryan was trying to play against her romantic type casting. She is at least able to achieve that. Filmmaker Jane Campion delivers a indie-verier erotic thriller although the thrills don't get there. Frannie is a disconnected and fractured character. The movie is able accentuate that concept but it does need more paranoia in order for the thrills to land. The murky weird stuff in her character is great but the movie falls flat overall. The plot simply does not move enough.

atlasmb "In the Cut" is a film that I think few people would like. First of all, it is populated with unlikable people. Meg Ryan plays Frannie Avery--a woman who has emotional problems. As the film progresses, she seems to become more deeply involved in her own psychological issues. She lives in a New York City that is filmed with a seedy grittiness and she only knows and meets characters who are morally ambiguous or who possess questionable motivations."In the Cut" is well filmed. It possesses style and a director's vision. But it frames a world where few would want to go. Frannie becomes involved with Detective Malloy, played by Mark Ruffalo. His job makes him witness to the worst that society has to offer. He is currently working on a series of grisly homicides. Frannie's morbid curiosity exposes her to Malloy's world and taints their relationship, whatever it is.As the film continues, it becomes more about mood than mystery. An ambiguous tone creates a storyline where motives are suspect and suspicions multiply. If the viewer can be content with only mood and style, then this film may satisfy. But I expect most viewers prefer films with a clearer purpose or a "deeper" meaning.

kenjha A sexually frustrated school teacher becomes involved with a cop investigating a series of murders. Ryan tries to shed her good girl image but manages to only shed her clothes. She seems to have had too much work done on her face, which is rather distracting. Speaking of distracting, the direction is horrible, with the shaking camera and ugly framing constantly calling attention away from the story - not that there is much going on of interest in the story anyway. Campion is responsible for the poor direction as well as the lousy screenplay. The plot is lacking in narrative flow and the dialog is embarrassingly bad. Ruffalo is usually worth watching, but he can't do much with his undeveloped character. Leigh comes off best.

ForVirg Right off the bat I must say that I agree with another reviewer here who mentioned Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance and character as the bright spot in this dismal (literally and figuratively) movie.I've never been a huge fan of Leigh's, but she does a terrific acting job with what she's been handed. Also, her character is the only human who ever smiles at all through the entirety of this dark-and-dismal-merely-for-the-sake-of-being-dark-and-dismal movie.And there is my first criticism. It is far more effective to let the flow of natural human behavior take the viewer to a troubling place in the psyche than it is to try to do so by skipping story development and just having all the characters behave morose and bizarrely at all times and by using shadowy lighting.This movie made me feel very sad for Meg Ryan. I actually watched the film solely because I thought it would be good to see Ryan have a chance to exercise her acting muscles instead of once again playing the formulaic perky romantic interest role that has made her famous.Actually, Ryan IS very talented and would be excellent in a robustly dark role. I wish she would have chosen a more well-written script than this predictable and boring yawner.This movie lives way down to my lowest expectations of modern movie-making with all the attendant predictable moments: sex scenes where power and dominance game playing between the partners is supposed to create intense tension (have these writers never had an actual moment of intense sexual attraction allowed to simmer? It doesn't appear that way, so sad for them); blurry and shaky camera work that is supposed to add I don't know what exactly; and dark, dismal, depressed and angry people who apparently have zero personality.It is this last criticism which bothers me the most about this horrible waste of time. I'm no fan of predictability in modern films, but when that predictability is presented within a story of one-dimensional characters with less depth of personality than a computer game character, it is beyond frustrating.There is no shortage of talented and imaginative writers in this world. Why on earth Hollywood persists in rewarding hack writing is beyond me.