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Redford, Mirren and Dafoe could read a seed catalog and make it fascinating, so this beginner's exercise in suspense and character is not a dull film if you keep that in mind; Roger Ebert mentioned that he could not see the conclusion coming--it was evident to me in the first ten minutes, the set-up with life-styles certainly leading the plot development: the worker bee on the public bus and the king of the hill with his swimming pool and doting wife neatly contrasted from the get-go.

Because this is not primarily a violent film, but a character study, some may find the close-ups and studied manner of worried wife Mirren dull, but it is really the screenplay that needs some intensity and tension as the two men square off in the woods; their chatter is oddly pedestrian. There are moments worth watching here, but The Clearing fails to fully deliver on its promise

A low-key Suspenser emphasizing empathetic concerns at the expense of a more driving narrative. It is a talky affair with downbeat discussions and attention to melodramatic detail. The movie suffers and suffocates in its own self-consciousness and less than explanatory story.

It is a somewhat engaging affair of character flaws with a forever slow and steady pulse that builds some tension but never allows access to the deep demands of the style it presents.

The ending is better than the rest but is still quite unsatisfying and leaves the viewer unfulfilled with frustrations from the lackluster bemoaning's from listless and less than interesting people.

After all of the negative reviews I read about this movie, it was with reluctance and groaning that I agreed to watch it when my wife picked it out. I fully expected a bomb. What a pleasant surprise. "The Clearing" is, as many have pointed out, a slower moving film. Just because there is no action does not mean a film is bad. "The Clearing" is a drama with two story lines moving along in parallel. There is interesting dialogue building up to an uncertain climax. "The Clearing" held my interest and developed suspense. With an only 90 minute running time, I kept wondering how they were going to wrap everything up. And that is the strength of this movie. It is not formulaic. You will not guess the ending. All of the loose ends in both plot and character development come to a conclusion in the final minutes. All in all, much better than expected and well worth renting. 7/10

I'm 66 so more or less grew up watching the arc of Redford's career. Helen Mirren is a wonderful actress. Sometimes I pay attention to irrelevant things...like how well older actors and actresses keep their looks etc. Mirren to me looks beautiful....not like she did as a very young person....but I seethe young person inside the older person with all the knowledge and characters that inform her person now...which adds to her beauty. So I admire these two terrific actors for their work and also on a personal agenda level that I relate to my own experience getting old. In that way it encourages me....I could not act my way out of a paper bag so I do not envy them on a professional level....I think as we/they age, if their good, as these 2 obviously are, they learn how to deeply and more or less seamlessly incorporate things they have come to personally learn in their everyday lives into the roles they adopt, so, more and more, you see who they actually are, when they stylize personal realities into 'roles'. So, though here's a well crafted plot, it's more a character driven film...more about responses to a horrendous situation then the situation itself. For me, this is more interesting, the human angle, then bang-bang bs. which this could easily have been...as we see in several other high suspense, action driven kidnap scenarios....

Wayne (Robert Redford) and Eileen Hayes (Helen Mirren) live a comfortable upper class life in Pittsburgh high class suburb. They have two grown children (Alessandro Nivola, Melissa Sagemiller). Then Wayne disappears. He's been kidnapped by former employee Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe). The FBI investigates which reveals Wayne's ongoing affair. Eventually Arnold demands a ransom.

The movie lacks the normal intensity. It's filled with a lot of the inbetween moments. It's a style that keeps the tension simmering at low. There are great actors here and it's fascinating to see them interact. There is also a timeline split going on. It's a great idea but it needs some more thought on its execution. This movie just needs greater intensity.