ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

gbkmmaurstad The plot is simple, wealthy executive is kidnapped by disgruntled employee. What isn't simple is Wayne (Robert Redford) and Eileen's (Helen Mirren) marriage and that of the kidnapper Arnold (William Dafoe). What unfolds during the kidnapping, request and delivery of the ransom is an unfolding of Wayne and Arnold's lives. Both men's families do not not know them other than as providers. Is it too late, will they have a second chance? If Redford or Mirren is one of your favorites, the film is worth the watch. Good flick on a Saturday afternoon, when you've got the house to yourself so you can focus on the dialogue.

dave-308-664208 I was rather entertained for the majority of the movie. I hadn't really been criticizing it and was just enjoying what I though was a "decent" movie. THEN, when the kidnapper and the hostage were in the woods the film took a stupid sudden twist that completely turned me off. Redford's hostage character had strangled the kidnapper and made him unconscious. He could have ran away, finished the job and killed him, smashed him with something, anything! Instead he gets up and goes over to put his face against the tree, facing with his back away from the kidnapper. Oh and of course the kidnapper regains consciousness and finds the gun in the mud puddle. I was so "disappointed" with the movie at that point that I just abruptly turned it off! I understand that the plot had to go in that direction to accommodate the ending, but what disappointed me was that Redford's character didn't even try to get away and even turned his back on Defoe's character. It was just plain stupid and inexcusable. So bad to me that it even ruined what I had actually watched of the movie. That was the only part of the movie that I didn't like. What I watched up until that part wasn't too bad.

Chrysanthepop Pieter Jan Brugge's 'The Clearing' is an underrated intense kidnap thriller. Brugge gets to the point straight away and he sticks to the main story all the way through without dwelling on insignificant subplots. It is tightly packed within 90 minutes and the events unroll smoothly. However, the strength of the film is that it focuses more on interaction rather than action and for that to stand out, solid dialogues and strong performances are a requirement. The dialogues are indeed well written. Even though they are of a few words, they speak enough and add to the subtlety of the actors' performances. In addition, the score is suitably downplayed.Robert Redford and Willem Defoe are great. Defoe delivers a subtle and sympathetic performance as the desperate kidnapper while Redford does an equally convincing job as the kidnapped Wayne. Of the supporting cast, Alessandro Nivola and Matt Craven stand out. Leaving the best for last, it is Helen Mirren who steals the show by delivering an incredibly subtle nuanced performance that reflects Eileen's anger, despair, determination, ambivalence, hesitation and love. It truly is another remarkable performance in her long list of achievements.On the down side, there are a few plot holes. I kept wondering why Wayne didn't escape when he had his chance? The daughter character had nothing to add.'The Clearing' is a solid thriller with a realistic ending that may not be acceptable by everyone but worked well for me. The highlight is clearly it's subtlety and performances.

frendzerbaru i don't know what is on the director mind. After watching this movie I fell like I just wasting more than an hour of my life. I thought I will fell gratefully if I watch Tom and Jerry instead of this unbelievable movie. There is nothing good in this movie, I just don't get it, why its rating not that bad (6.0) . I think there are a lot of retarded give high vote to this movie, which of course it doesn't deserve any of those!! If this movie deserve to be rated 6/10 so maybe Tom and jerry should be rated 30/10. This is the way i express my depression toward this damn movie it totally kick my dick off, luckily i just watch it on DVD instead of movie cinema, because i don't think i will react normally after the end of the movie which will let others to think that i was a psycho.