Customer Reviews

The Clearing [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

THE CLEARING will resonate most, I think, with long-married couples. Newlyweds and those married for less than, say, ten years - perhaps longer - may leave the theater thinking, "What was that all about?" Gum-chewing, adolescent singles needn't bother even buying a ticket.

Successful executive Wayne Haynes (Robert Redford) lives the good life in an elegant mansion in a leafy suburb with his wife of decades, Eileen (Helen Mirren). One morning on the way to work, Wayne is kidnapped by Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe), a former employee, and made to march at gunpoint deep into the woods, ostensibly to be handed over to accomplices waiting in a cabin who've planned the escapade for reasons to be revealed. Eileen is left to expect developments and a ransom note with FBI agent Fuller (Matt Craven).

To be honest, I kept expecting a plot twist that would reach out, knock the popcorn from my hands, and scream "Gotcha!" And, admittedly, I was a little disappointed when that didn't happen, even though there's a mildly clever manipulation of the timelines of the two subplots, i.e. Wayne's forced march and Eileen's worried vigil. However, upon reflection, I realize that THE CLEARING isn't about a kidnapping, but rather the evolution of a marriage and the emotional ties that bind even in one that's gone stale, where the only things left are emotional dissatisfaction, dutiful commitment, and resigned toleration. Indeed, Mack's motive for the crime is left unexplored, but it doesn't have to be; it's simply a means to an end.

This film is overpopulated. Eileen is joined by her adult children, daughter Jill (Melissa Sagemiller) and son Tim (Alessandro Nivola), the latter with his own wife and infant son. The casting director should have stayed solely with the Redford, Mirren, Dafoe, and Craven characters. Except for a poignant and revealing confrontation between Eileen and The Other Woman (Wendy Crewson), the rest of the ensemble only provides unnecessary clutter.

Old pros Redford and Mirren show the audience and the younger generations of thespians what quality acting is all about in an adult drama that has nary a special effect in sight. This is a solid film about mature relationships.

This is an intense drama which examines the impact of a kidnapping on the three main participants in the drama; Wayne Hayes (Robert Redford), a driven executive who has become a multimillionaire by selling the business which he founded; his wife Eileen (Helen Mirren), who shares their luxurious estate but who was deeply wounded years ago by an affair which she now learns has not ended, and Arnold Mack (William DaFoe), a menacing yet vulnerable kidnapper who hopes to begin a new chapter in his disappointing life. It is directed with great attention to detail; while there are occasionally scenes of intense action, most are very brief except for the one involving the payment of the eventual ransom demand. The performances of the three co-stars in this film allow them to exhibit their talent for dramatic expression which has made them recognizable to all fans of serious drama; if strong performances and a well crafted film by themselves are sufficient criteria for you to attend a movie, then you will undoubtedly enjoy this film a great deal more than I did. The most interesting technique involved the juxtaposition of the two elements of the storyline. After the opening scene we were alternately shown the interaction between DaFoe and Redford during Redford's forced march to the cabin in THE CLEARING in the woods and his wife and family's reactions as events unfolded. Their helplessness intensified as the kidnapper seemed able to continually avoid all attempts by the FBI to entrap him; meanwhile the conversations between the victim and his abductor were riveting at times. (My rating for these aspects of this movie would be well over four stars.)

However, the story seemed interminable to me. I looked at my watch as we left the theater and was amazed that the running time was only ninety minutes, it had seemed well over two hours. The plot is extremely simple, the characters' interactions and the examinations of the choices which have led to their current situation is not the backdrop to the story, it is the story. This film seems to be a tribute to the minimalist tradition; while spare dialog and a tendency towards understatement often allow a glance or a gesture to more effectively impart meaning and create a mood than the chatter which passes for sensible conversation in many films, the director's approach (and script) left me with many questions and a feeling of incompleteness at several points during the film. And while the conclusion was certainly consistent with the storyline, I found it somewhat abrupt (admittedly the effect was quite profound) and disappointing. Thus, my rating of the plot is a generous two stars and my overall rating of three stars is a compromise between my admiration for the film's technical virtuosity and my lack of enjoyment of the story.

As the reviews to date indicate, this film engenders widely differing reactions among viewers. My wife enjoyed it substantially more than I did, and she would have given it a higher rating than I have. Therefore, I have tried to present the positive and negative aspects in an attempt to provide sufficient perspective allow individuals to decide for themselves whether it is the sort of film which they might enjoy. My final caveat is to pay attention to the disparate timelines in the two alternating narrative sequences. It is a very clever technique whose impact I did not fully appreciate until the conclusion of the movie.

Tucker Andersen

The Clearing is a story of a couple, Wayne (played by Robert Redford) and Eileen (Helen Mirrem), who are in the golden stages of there marriage when Wayne is kidnapped.

Wayne is a successful business man who has nice adult children, a gorgeous home, a nice car and a mistress. Wayne exits his home one day, only to be kidnapped by Arnold Mack (played by Willem Dafoe). It is here that the story begins.

The Clearing really isn't a kidnapping movie so much as it is a story about Wayne and Eileen. It moves along at a comfortable pace, but is by no means an intense thriller or action motion. This is not a bad thing.

The story is fresh, the acting well above average, and the interaction between the characters is pleasant to watch. Overall, the only flaw in the movie is that we really don't get a taste for Wayne and Eileen's relationship to the depth that is needed. They are rarely on screen together. Thus, there is a tension that is missing, because our hearts aren't sold on their love for one another. This leaves the movie a little flat, but still good.

This is an enjoyable movie, but not one most people will rush out to buy.

I want to address comments made by critics of the film; something I don't normally do but feel the need to here.

Some have criticized the movie for having 2 separate time lines. One reviewer called it artsy-fartsy. The Clearing plays no artsy tricks, nor tries to confuse you in the name of making "cool art." There are two separate time lines. We see Eileen as she finds out about Wayne's kidnapping, and the subsequent interactions she has with her family. Then, whenever we see Wayne and Arnold Mack, we move slightly back in time. The movie gently reveals what happened to Wayne. No tricks. No confusion at all. Very easy to follow, and doesn't come of as a gimmick in the least.

Another critic said there were way too many closeups. I don't recall one. Films like the Brown Bunny are filled with dramatic closeups of facial features, drawing attention to the filmmaker at times. The Clearing has none of that. The camera work is soft, unnoticeable, and the movie was not cluttered with closeups.

Many don't like the Clearing because it isn't an action thriller. It isn't. It is a story of primarily 3 people. It is told well, and there are no plot gimmicks. The acting is superb, and the story comes across as authentic. Those who want a heart pounding thriller will be disappointed.

Another critic said the ending was horrible. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the end. Again, there are no gimmicks and no cliff hangers. The kidnapping is resolved, and there is story closure for all 3 main characters. We know why Wayne was kidnapped, and the outcome of the kidnapping. I enjoyed the ending.

This was a good film that could have been great if Wayne and Eileen would have been sewn deeper into our hearts. It is also a film that don't think resonates well with people who have never made it to the 10 year mark in there marriage.

Total Score (out of 100) = 61

31 (out of 50). Enjoyment. A rating based on my overall enjoyment of the film.
9 (out of 10). Acting. How good was the acting?
9 (out of 10). Immersion. Did the movie suck me into the story?
6 (out of 10). Intangibles. Special effects. Movie pace. Is the movie forgettable, or something you will talk about and remember for weeks? Years?
5 (out of 10). Must see. Is this movie worth seeing/renting?
1 (out of 10). Must buy. Is this movie a must buy/purchase?

The Clearing is a quietly disturbing thriller about a very violent topic--kidnapping. The main characters-Willem Defoe as the kidnapper and Robert Redford as the successful business magnate and victim--spend a lot of the film in conversation. We get a picture of how an intelligent charismatic businessman would try to persuade his captor to let him go. The businessman's wife, played by Helen Mirren, discovers unpleasant secrets about her husband during the FBI investigation. Ultimately she discovers the core of her love for her husband during this difficult time.

The Clearing is edgy and suspenseful but has the hushed concentration of an art film. I enjoyed watching Redford and Defoe together. They both excel in quiet intensity which is what this film called for. The eloquence of Mirren's acting is a joy to behold. This strange movie is worth watching for the brilliant performances by three greats of the screen.

The Clearing is an unusual film that builds up quietly, one of those films that you happen to see on TV, sit down a little just to figure out what's happening and you end up sitting and watching it till the end.

The acting is fabulous. Robert Redford plays a successful businessman, the kidnapped victim and the husband in a marriage that has seen better days despite the love that is still there. The character is a powerful one, Wayne Hayes is an intelligent and resourceful man, not used to loosing, quick in assessing others. He thinks he has Arnold, the kidnapper, figured out right from the beginning. And he has, but not totally. Arnold, a great creation of William Dafoe is a loser and his body, his face, his hands, everything in him say so. His dreams of a different life and of a different personality make him take extreme actions that will be hard for him to sustain. I have never liked Dafoe as much as with Arnold.
And finally, Helen Mirren who plays Wayne's wife, a self-conscious and self-controlled suburb wife, striving to keep her posture and to keep life under control.

A lesson in acting, a quiet, intelligent film to watch and watch again. A small surprise at the end, enough to make us think back on the film, on their lives, on our lives. All those words unsaid.

I won't go into the details of this plot...it's there in the description...this could have been a "great film"...it has the actors...how can a film go wrong with this lineup...I blame it all on the film editor...if you watch the deleted scenes that are included in the extra's so little that could have been left in would have mattered greatly...Redford and Mirren should have been childless because the children's roles are extremely limited due to the cutting floor...we don't get to know them at all...why does Hollywood think our attention span can't run the gamut of a full featured film...I just watched The Departed which ran for well over two hours and the time just flew by...come on guys...give the consumer a break....this coulda...shoulda been a "great film".

Mirren, Redford, Dafoe all are excellent in their respective roles; their talent is beyond reproach. The producer/director could have saved the viewer a great deal of wasted time had they/he wrapped it all up within the first two-thirds. The plot dragged, continuity was sometimes unintelligible, and it was just plain slow. But what really bombed the movie which had the potential of being extremely good was when Redford choked Dafoe. Now get this: We are lead to believe that Dafoe is down for the count, dead. Now here is Redford, although exhausted TURNS HIS BACK on Dafoe, FAILS TO RELEASE HIS PLASTIC HAND TIES, AND THE WORST OF ALL, FAILS TO GET THE GUN!!! There's more. Oh, this is beautiful - Dafoe accidentally finds the gun in the wet, slimy, gunky, forest undergrowth with all that mess on and INSIDE THE BARREL! Ask any firearms expert if they will pull the trigger on a 9 mm in that condition for a million dollars and he'll tell you where to go real quick. A bullet fired into a polluted barrel at approx. 1200 feet per second is going to cause the gun to blow up in your face! Redford wouldn't have gotten a scratch because the bullet would never had exited the barrel! From there it all really goes dumb; Mirren and the phony looking cops (FBI) and robbers phantom chase with her carrying the bag of money, the way she's bamboozled in the dead of the night in the country alone in her car - no woman of her caliber is that stupid. "The Clearing" had a good start, had an extremely good potential, but as usual they blew it.

Helen Mirren, Robert Redford, and Willem Dafoe all have better vehicles deserving of permanent space on your shelves. "Clearing" is an interesting character study of a kidnapper, a victim, and the kidnapped victim's family. This film depicts the crime from all angles, which is one of it's best aspects. The stretching of time for one storyline and collapsing for another is at best confusing and worst heartwrenching if you are involved with the characters. While both Dafoe and Redford gave an excellent performance, I believe that Helen Mirren as Redford's wife was the heart of this film and the heart of the family. Kudos to her for a standup performance.

The Clearing delivers strong acting performances by Robert Redford, Helen Mirren and Willem Dafoe. But the kidnapping plot and script writing lacks development.

I never heard anything about this film beforehand. So I watched without expectations. It came up short in the entertainment value. The kidnapping storyline was drawn out to a full length movie. Ninety minutes was the cutoff budget line I guess.

The film look and quality is consistent with trying to experiment with directorial techniques. That feel for a film and plot lacking was disappointing. The strong acting is not enough to recommend this movie as a must see. Their strong cast dramatic performance was wasted. Wannabe actors should see this film for facial and body language techniques. I don't know how much adlib was allowed during filming, but I'm guessing there was not much freedom.

I would recommend to rent DVD only. Purchase this DVD if you are a budding actor.

I'd heard nothing about The Clearing, which is rare for movies nowadays. Maybe it wasn't advertised much; I'd never seen a trailer.

The Clearing grabbed me quickly, with nice performances from its stars, particularly Willem Dafoe and Helen Mirren, and a provocative opening. Redford, a rich man in a sanitized life, goes missing. Has he run away? Has he been kidnapped? It's a formidable hook, and it plays out well as we are drawn into what appears to be a complicated plot involving an organization that has turned abduction into an art. Along the way, we get some powerful insights into modern life and marriage, about the paths that lives can take, and about the power of alienation, anger, and selfishness.

Redford's character is an arrogant, self-absorbed businessman whose life appears to revolve around navel-inspecting about whether he is "in love," whether he loves his wife, and his lack of attention to his children (who come across as flawed, narcissistic and sad). His wife, played by Mirren, is a nice spin on the wife who looks the other way, as long as her lifestyle is maintained. There's a nice sadness to the performance, underscoring the likelihood that those who've accepted comfort and luxury over love and meaning are just as likely to be mired in quiet emptiness and anomie. Mirren has a great line after a dinner with friends. When she's complemented on the marvellous dinner, she casually says that she had nothing to do with it. The guests take it as self-effacing -- but she's being brutally honest. All that she's done is a careful choreographing of the hired help. This is no great personal act or sacrifice, no act of love or creativity meant to celebrate friends or family. It's just empty gesturing.

Dafoe's character is one of those guys who doesn't do well with capitalism. His lack of drive and energy punctuates his every move and comment; he is soft, sad, and lost in a world where he doesn't connect. He's not "the person to watch" in the corporate hierarchy. And so, he ends up losing his job after 17 years, completely oblivious to any role he might have had in his fate. He and his wife know live with her parents, and he must cope with his having failed in the promise he made to himself and to her ... to be a "success." We never really know the extent of her disappoinment, if it exists at all. She might not care. But we see his own disappointment, having reached a place in life where he is an invisible man -- unimportant, irrelevant.

There's a lot of depth here, in other words. But as in so many movies, it is killed by a mediocre ending -- and a silling final scene so burdened with dissonant sentimentality that it must have been patched on after a screening that went bad. Dafoe's character behaves in ways that are completely inconsistent with what came before, and the conclusion grounds an otherwise enticing drama in a mediocre wrapping up of complex issues. The ultimate disappointment is that there are so many better places this film could have gone that it is ultimately a failure. Savor the acting and dialogue through about two-thirds of the film, and then be prepared for disappointment.

Barely a 3 ... for trying.