Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64311 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-16
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 126 minutes

Amazon.com
The darkest of the filmic trilogy that unites husband and wife Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, Flesh and Bone is a grimly affecting tale of two lonely lives, one unexpectedly, dramatically affected by the other. Quaid is the tragic Arlis, condemned to running away from memories of his horrific childhood. His is a life on the road, replenishing vending machines including one with a live chicken and predictions of the future. Ryan's unhappily wed Kay fears a past that Arlis is inextricably tied to. Still, they're drawn to each other. Then Arlis's father, the amoral Roy (an appropriately frightening James Caan), shows up and interferes and intervenes. Joining Roy is the benignly malevolent Ginnie (a sharp Gwyneth Paltrow in her first significant role). The film is written and directed by underused Steve Kloves, who wrote the lovely Racing with the Moon, and who wrote and directed The Fabulous Baker Boys.

For Flesh, Ryan is at her throaty, dark best, and Quaid's pain is etched on his face. The couple works very well together in this film, their first as a married couple (Innerspace and D.O.A. were made pre-nup). It's not the romantic light comedy both Quaid and Ryan had later success with, but it's a very effective and compelling film, despite its devastating tale. --N.F. Mendoza

From The New Yorker
The first film written and directed by Steve Kloves, "The Fabulous Baker Boys," was the most mature début in years, and a tough act to follow. His second is a dark and desperate piece of work; the Baker Boys were fated to stay middling and unknown, but the doom hanging over his new characters is altogether more severe. Dennis Quaid plays Arlis Sweeney, who as a young boy was an unwilling accomplice to the crimes of his father (James Caan). He minds his own business until he falls for Kay (Meg Ryan) and finds himself dragged back to the wickedness of the past. Although the plot comes to rely on a particularly outlandish series of coincidences, it's a credit to Kloves's skill that you can almost put this out of your mind and enjoy his long, suspended scenes, brimming with lust or the need to lash out. But he is properly an ironist, not a dealer in Hawthorne-like fables, and you miss the moments of levity that lifted the earlier movie, just as you long for Dennis Quaid's face, swollen with distress, to relax into one of his old wide grins. The movie is almost stolen by a gorgeous performance from Gwyneth Paltrow (who had one good scene in "Malice"), as a sly young drifter. Paltrow seems to know more about cool than all the other players put together. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

One of My Favorites: A Great Underappreciated Sleeper
This film is one of my favorites. The story is suspenseful and well plotted. The theme is universal, but if you're not from small-town western Oklahoma or western Texas, or have not spent extended time there, you may not fully appreciate what a fabulous job Kloves (a native of Austin TX) has done in this film -- and how underappreciated the film is. It is a true sleeper. Culturally, this movie is the Southwestern equivalent of a film about Native Americans written and directed by a Native American. Speaking as a native of the Southwest, it was so refreshing to see a movie set in the rural Southwest that broke from the stale stereotype of the typical "western" law & order, yahoo, or save the ranch movies --one that tells a compelling and suspenseful personal story in a culturally authentic manner, without a single sheriff in sight. "Blood" or family ties are sacrosanct in this region of the country, so the theme is very appropriate to the cultural context while remaining of interest to most viewers. Ryan's, & Cann's performances are respectable, but not exceptionally authentic culturally. I agree with the earlier critique of Ryan's portrayal, but she nevertheless does a pretty good job for a girl from Connecticut-- one that is more regionally authentic than Cann's! This was the first film I saw Paltrow in, and she played her jaded character so convincingly (Paltrow's character is a wandering con artist from parts unknown -- obviously not from the Southwest) that it took time to view her differently in later films. However, if your only exposure to "cowboys" is from western movies, country-western music videos, or city-born "drugstore" cowboys, and you haven't spent time around feed lots, and cattle auctions in Texas or Oklahoma, then you've never seen real "born and bred" country cowboys from the Southwest and you probably won't realize how remarkable and true Quaid's performance is. When I first saw this film years ago, Quaid's performance was so good -- so nuanced -- that I was sure he had to have grown up in the country of west Texas. Quaid captured the body language and subtle mannerisms perfectly. My husband and I love watching this movie and we never fail to marvel anew at Quaid's performance each time we see it. It is so rare to see a captivating film of this quality and authenticity set in the rural Southwest.

A well acted and directed intricate piece of filmaking (sp)
No one is less of a Meg Ryan fan than I. She is, entirely too cutsie for my taste. Not that she's bad to look at mind you. But in this film she is about as sexy, real, and sympathetic as possible. Her performance was perfect for the part.

Dennis Quaid gives his finest performance ever as the tormented son of James Caan.

It's pretty easy to see where the film is headed fairly early in the picture but it's so well acted and directed that it's well worth the price of admission. The film is extremely character driven including an incredibly cheap yet sexy Gwyneth Paltrow.

The movie has much to say about relationships, loyalty, selfishness and the price paid because of them.

"A Viewer from Texas" Just Doesn't Understand...
The ending of this fine film is hardly "senseless." The film is a refutation of biological determinism, although it could also be used to refute environmental determinism. After having been told by his evil father (James Caan) that they have the same bloodline--implying that this must make his son Arlis (Dennis Quaid) evil, just like his father--Arlis buys into this claptrap. "If you're born to it" and "It's not in your blood" are two of Arlis' typical comments. But at the end, when he says, "It's NOTHING--only BLOOD," he has finally realized that we all have free will and that we make our own decisions, bloodline or no bloodline. This film is truly Dostoevskian, PARTICULARLY the ending, which is as good a compliment as you can pay to any film. The great Russian novelist also saw the horrible danger in the determinist credo. Give this film 5 stars and send "A Viewer from Texas" back to school.