"In the Cut" with Meg Ryan and Mark Ruffalo

I just saw this flick tonight (DVD). It got terrible reviews when it came out, but I thought it was pretty damn good. Maybe I'm a jackass. My wife liked it as well, though she thought that whoever wrote it hates men (in general, as it were) since every man in the film was, as she put it, predatory.

As a New Yorker, I really got the careful attention to the City itself playing a character role (I also loved how Tokyo is a character in Lost in Translation ), and even 9/11 winds up soaking the visuals in a strange and somber attitude. Ruffalo nails the NYPD detective role about as good as anyone I've seen recently ("You don't want yer bizness in the street," he sagely intones). Anyway, just wondering if anyone else had thoughts.

Og course, when I was growing up in NYC, "In the Cut" always meant hiding out from the cops after pulling some scam or other, as in the following lines from Biggie Smalls:


Since it's on, I call my nigga Arizona Ron
From Tuscon, pushed the black Yukon
Usually had the slow grooves on, mostly rocked the Isley
Stupid as a young'un, chose not to lose wisely
Sharper with game, him and his crooks, called The Jooks
Heard it was sweet, bout three-fifty a piece
Ron bought a truck, two bricks laid in the cut
His peeps got buck, got locked the fuck up
That's when Ron vanished, came back, speakin Spanish
Lavish habits, two rings, twenty carats
Here's a criminal, nigga made America's Most
Killed his baby mother brother, slit his throat
The nigga got bagged with the toast
Weeded, took it to trial, beat it
Now he feel he undefeated, he mean it
Nothing to lose, tattooed around his gun wounds
Everything to gain, embedded in his brain
And me I feel the same for this money you're dyin'
Specially if my daughter cryin, I ain't lyin
Y'all know the science

Jennifer Jason Leigh is always good. Ithought Ms. Ryan did a good job in dramatic role but she played the perky bit way too long and it will overshadow the rest of her career.

I know it's hard to counteract, but I really tried to watch the flick for the flick, and not bump in the "When Harry Met Sally" or "You've Got Mail" at every frame. I thought Ryan was really strong in this role, though there is a point in the flick where she seems to mistake grief for drunkenness.