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100The very best thrillers -- a select group to which The Clearing clearly belongs -- exploit subconscious fears that bubble up at vulnerable moments.
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80Just 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.
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80A 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.
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80It stays in character, small, human, bitter and sad.
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75The pleasures of this endeavor, directed with a keen eye for detail by Pieter Jan Brugge, come from what the actors bring to the material.
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75The 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.
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75Redford gives one of his best performances ever in this taut, emotionally engrossing thriller.
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75Redford has rarely done this kind of intimate drama, effectively a two-character play on the mountain, and he's very convincing. As is Dafoe.
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75The Clearing reminds us what a riveting presence he (Redford) can be.
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75The performances are immaculate, especially Dafoe and the always-magnificent Mirren, who rarely gets a vehicle this worthy of her talent.
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70Unsatisfying as crime drama but haunting as a meditation on marriage.
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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.
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70Director 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.
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70Classy, 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.
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70I 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.
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67The 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.
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63An extremely well- acted thriller that simply fails to thrill.
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63Classy but ultimately unsatisfying film.
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63This 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.
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63The 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.
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60The real problem is that Brugge and Haythe fail to satisfactorily pull off either the thriller or the marital deconstruction.
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60This 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.
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Just an OK thriller, full of standard scenarios and cookie-cutter characters.
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50What's missing most in the film, though, is a palpable sense of tension.
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50An opaque kidnapping drama that features three expertly crafted performances operating on three different planets.
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50Wants 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.
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50As austere as the unflappable Mr. Redford, The Clearing is an enterprising but ultimately unsatisfying exercise that promises quite a lot, but delivers very little.
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Surprisingly dreary kidnapping drama.
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50It 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.
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50Mr. 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.
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50The 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.
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50Ultimately, we find ourselves looking for the wrong sort of clearing: a way out.
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40I'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.
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40A thriller stripped of thrills--or, even worse, a thriller that thinks of itself as somehow rising above the vulgar pleasures of excitement.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 11 out of 16
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Mixed: 3 out of 16
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Negative: 2 out of 16
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JW7
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GrahamM.7This is really a good film. This was done well, has an interesting story, and the actors preform well.