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Clearing, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures


7.1

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 21 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for brief strong language

Starring Robert Redford, Willem Dafoe, Helen Mirren, Matt Craven, Alessandro Nivola, Melissa Sagemiller, Sarah Koskoff, and Peter Gannon

The story of a parallel emotional struggle between the victim of a kidnapping and the family that is left behind. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Justin Haythe
DIRECTED BY:	Pieter Jan Brugge
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 9, 2004 Video: November 9, 2004 Theatrical: July 2, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	91 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

The very best thrillers -- a select group to which The Clearing clearly belongs -- exploit subconscious fears that bubble up at vulnerable moments.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A beautiful and consistently engaging film, but that the filmmakers dared cast all three lead roles with actors who are over 40 makes it especially rewarding.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Just when you think The Clearing is too simplistic to have any dramatic edge, the actors dig in and flesh out the stark framework of the story.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It stays in character, small, human, bitter and sad.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

The Clearing reminds us what a riveting presence he (Redford) can be.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Redford has rarely done this kind of intimate drama, effectively a two-character play on the mountain, and he's very convincing. As is Dafoe.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The Clearing doesn't feel bound by the usual formulas of crime movies. What eventually happens will emerge from the personalities of the characters, not from the requirements of Hollywood endings.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The performances are immaculate, especially Dafoe and the always-magnificent Mirren, who rarely gets a vehicle this worthy of her talent.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The pleasures of this endeavor, directed with a keen eye for detail by Pieter Jan Brugge, come from what the actors bring to the material.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Redford gives one of his best performances ever in this taut, emotionally engrossing thriller.

LA Weekly Chuck Wilson

Unsatisfying as crime drama but haunting as a meditation on marriage.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

I expected this to open out into another loud, thumping thriller. Instead it remains quiet and focused, exploring the couple's frayed relationship and the economic divide that separates the husband from his captor.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Classy, decorous and well acted, directorial debut by Hollywood producer Pieter Jan BruggePieter Jan Brugge is nicely crafted but too buttoned up to generate more than polite interest, much less the urgent excitement a kidnapping story might be expected to trigger.

Village Voice David Ng

Kidnapping movies invariably crescendo to a fever pitch of procedural complexity. At a terse 91 minutes, The Clearing offers the reverse, a movie that only grows more conceptually minimal as the clock ticks down.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Director Pieter Jan Brugge makes us feel their impatience and frustration even as they do. He's aided greatly in this by the casting of the wonderful Helen Mirren as Mrs. Hayes.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The Clearing is what's known in the biz as an alternative for adult moviegoers. Which is to say the film is a performance-driven drama devoid of special effects and loud noises. On the contrary, it's a meditation on midlife weaknesses and compensation.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Classy but ultimately unsatisfying film.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The Clearing is being positioned as "adult counter-programming" for the summer season, but the benefits of seeing this movie may not be worth the patience necessary to get through it.

USA Today Mike Clark

This is one of those moderately engrossing movies that seems to collapse all at once during the wrap-up, yet it's well-acted all around.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An extremely well- acted thriller that simply fails to thrill.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This anti-thriller radiates dread rather than suspense; it delivers creeping apprehension rather than adrenaline-pumping kicks, and the uniformly strong and finely calibrated performances more than compensate for the absence of technical razzle-dazzle.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The real problem is that Brugge and Haythe fail to satisfactorily pull off either the thriller or the marital deconstruction.

Film Threat Christopher Zinsli

As austere as the unflappable Mr. Redford, The Clearing is an enterprising but ultimately unsatisfying exercise that promises quite a lot, but delivers very little.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Wants to be at any given moment--wrenching, thought-provoking, surprising, heartbreaking--all it ever is is tastefully lifeless. It’s been beaten into a coma by its own scruples.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It never adds up to much. There's a fair amount of fine acting (with that cast, how could there not be?), but it's in the service of a story that bubbles without ever boiling.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

What's missing most in the film, though, is a palpable sense of tension.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

Mr. Brugge has perhaps succeeded in avoiding vulgar melodrama, but he has hit on something far worse -- a bloodless melodrama, with bottled water running in its veins.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Ultimately, we find ourselves looking for the wrong sort of clearing: a way out.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

Just an OK thriller, full of standard scenarios and cookie-cutter characters.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The Clearing has been directed by a successful producer. In this case it's Pieter Jan Brugge, who brings seriousness and intelligence to his newly chosen craft, but little verve.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

An opaque kidnapping drama that features three expertly crafted performances operating on three different planets.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Surprisingly dreary kidnapping drama.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

A thriller stripped of thrills--or, even worse, a thriller that thinks of itself as somehow rising above the vulgar pleasures of excitement.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

I'm certainly not asking for car chases and explosions here, but this is a suspense film that's too "adult" for its own good, despite the fact that Redford, Dafoe, and Mirren (in particular) have rarely been more mature in their performances.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

JW gave it a7:
(7.5) These films come along every so often - the ones teaming two or three of our best actors - and you feel compelled to watch them just to see if it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it really doesn't. What we get in The Clearing, however, is a movie that quite impressively showcases not only the actors, but the effect that acting itself has on the quality of a film in general. Why this one succeeds so obviously where others have failed may be due to the fact that there's not much to the plot itself, or maybe it's that the three featured players are just that good. It's probably both. Either way, it's something to see Redford, Mirren, and Dafoe paint on what is essentially a blank canvas. As in Midnight Cowboy, the performances outlast the story.

Graham M. gave it a7:
This is really a good film. This was done well, has an interesting story, and the actors preform well.

Gabor A. gave it a 6:
Works well on many levels, not exceptionally so on any of them resulting in a mediocre film.

Judy T. gave it a 4:
Helen Mirren was great too bad the rest of the cast wasn't as good. But then they didn't have much of a story to work with. She add least had a character. So much more could have been done with Willem Dafoe's part. The problem with these type of stories is that they make great books and lousy movies.

[Anonymous] gave it a 9:
An intelligent, wonderful, beautiful, extremely moving and well-acted film by Redford, Mirren and DeFoe.

Larry S. gave it a 9:
An excellent film. Mirren and Dafoe are outstanding in their roles. Finally a movie that relies on acting and a simple well developed story, instead of silly violent scenes and things blowing up! Very well directed. Go see it!!!

Chad S. gave it a 6:
You've got The Sundance Kid tied up in a car trunk, and Mrs. Tingle, excuse me, DCI Jane Tennison, eluding the FBI during a ransom drop, which makes "The Clearing" sound like a major studio production, and two legendary actors, slumming. There's even a "make sure he's dead before you turn around" scene between The Sundance Kid and Jesus Christ. "The Clearing" tantalizes us with the pairing of Robert Redford and Helen Mirren, and keeps them apart for all of twenty minutes. Redford, at least gets to work with Williem Dafoe. Mirren works hard to transform a stock character, the woman left behind, and make her interesting. The screenplay by Justin Haythe is smart in this aspect; because Eileen learns about her husband's ongoing affair, a pallete of emotions are available for Mirren. Wayne and Eileen have a shaky marriage, and had "The Clearing" not been an attempt to refute the genre requirements that a suspense/thriller be suspenseful or thrilling, a John Cassavettes knock-off might've broken out. Robert Redford gives a good performance, and it's too bad his character has to slide down a muddy hill.

Clearing, The Fox Searchlight Pictures

Clearing, The
Fox Searchlight Pictures