| 100 |
San Francisco Chronicle
The very best thrillers -- a select group to which The Clearing clearly belongs -- exploit subconscious fears that bubble up at vulnerable moments.
|
| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
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.
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| 80 |
Salon.com
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.
|
| 80 |
Washington Post
It stays in character, small, human, bitter and sad.
|
| 75 |
Baltimore Sun
The Clearing reminds us what a riveting presence he (Redford) can be.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
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.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
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.
|
| 75 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The performances are immaculate, especially Dafoe and the always-magnificent Mirren, who rarely gets a vehicle this worthy of her talent.
|
| 75 |
Rolling Stone
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.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Redford gives one of his best performances ever in this taut, emotionally engrossing thriller.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
Unsatisfying as crime drama but haunting as a meditation on marriage.
|
| 70 |
Chicago Reader
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.
|
| 70 |
Variety
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.
|
| 70 |
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.
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| 70 |
Dallas Observer
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.
|
| 67 |
Entertainment Weekly
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.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Classy but ultimately unsatisfying film.
|
| 63 |
ReelViews
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.
|
| 63 |
USA Today
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.
|
| 63 |
New York Post
An extremely well- acted thriller that simply fails to thrill.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
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.
|
| 60 |
The Hollywood Reporter
The real problem is that Brugge and Haythe fail to satisfactorily pull off either the thriller or the marital deconstruction.
|
| 50 |
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.
|
| 50 |
Premiere
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.
|
| 50 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
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.
|
| 50 |
Miami Herald
What's missing most in the film, though, is a palpable sense of tension.
|
| 50 |
The New York Times
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.
|
| 50 |
Washington Post
Ultimately, we find ourselves looking for the wrong sort of clearing: a way out.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Tribune
Allison Benedikt
Just an OK thriller, full of standard scenarios and cookie-cutter characters.
|
| 50 |
Wall Street Journal
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.
|
| 50 |
Boston Globe
An opaque kidnapping drama that features three expertly crafted performances operating on three different planets.
|
| 50 |
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
Surprisingly dreary kidnapping drama.
|
| 40 |
The New Yorker
A thriller stripped of thrills--or, even worse, a thriller that thinks of itself as somehow rising above the vulgar pleasures of excitement.
|
| 40 |
Austin Chronicle
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.
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