Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

adonis98-743-186503 As an executive is held captive by an employee, it's up to his wife to deliver the ransom. Even tho it has a majority of flaws as a whole 'The Clearing' packs a talented Cast that tries their best and do a pretty good job for the most part. Dafoe and Redford are excellent in the main roles and Mirren is fantastic as the wife in the supporting role. Where the film struggles is within it's narrative i mean the whole cheating thing and that back and forth with what happened between the 2 men kinda bored me at times but the good perfomances still made me go on with the film plus there's a deeper meaning with the film and how money and happiness is difficult to be earned but as i wrote the narrative was kinda messy at times and it does hurt the movie from it's overall more potentials as a whole. (6.5/10)

LeonLouisRicci 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.

elshikh4 OK, that's disappointing as a thriller, and as anything else as well!First things first : although he was given so little screen time but Alessandro Nivola is unbearable. Robert Redford was charismatic and effective enough (sometimes that's not enough when it comes to him !). The plot is catchy but not the script (deliberately it doesn't want to utilize any thrilling moments out of the main situation). The music didn't play anything special. And yes, the end is SO SAD ! On a deep level, it is not the typical Hollywood thriller. It is for audience cherishes the drama more than the thrill (or for the thrill's audience to cherish other things). It just uses its kidnapping case to tell you a story about love between a man and a woman; showing humans not super creatures, yet to tell you the truth it couldn't be as interesting or enjoyable as any of the pure thrillers ! It is pretty damn usual at places to an extent seduces you to sleep! The cast did it fine, but not that fine. While the sad ending is something to declare the story's message (clear it up before it's so late), still Alessandro Nivola is unbearable ! Interesting idea, not movie.

sophia-eight I was looking forward to this - Redford, Defoe & Mirren, all great actors, all in the one film. But this is not one they can be especially proud of. First off, why was Redford made to look like Donald Trump? The resemblance is so unmistakable that it couldn't have been accidental. Maybe it was meant to convey the fact that he's a millionaire? But it instead irritated me - I kept wondering why they didn't try to make Mirren look like Ivana! Then there was the amount of the ransom demand - $10 million. When she heard that, Mirren's character didn't gasp, and start going on about how they couldn't possibly raise that much in a couple of days, she'd have to mortgage the house, talk to the accountants about selling shares and so on. Instead, she simply agrees to it. That is just not believable. Sure her husband's a millionaire, but he had that much in liquid assets he wouldn't be driving himself to work, and he'd have a security staff to protect him from kidnap. And a canny businessman like him would anyway make sure that all his assets would be in an untouchable company trust or something similar (especially if he's lately been messing around and might face a divorce!) There is no way his wife would be able to lay her hands on that kind of money in just three days. Then there's all the soppy stuff about families and relationships - that family was like no family I know; where's the arguments, the distrust, the dragging up of bitter memories? Instead, it was all soft-focus hugging and tears. Dafoe's character, the way he was represented, was unstatisactory as well. This man was depicted as a loser, to frightened to leave an unhappy marriage r even get a job. Yet he was bright and organised enough to meticulously plan the kidnap; he even remembered nearly word-for-word a conversation he had had with the Redford character years before. So why exactly was he such a loser? Whereas Redford's character was presented in a completely positive fashion; he was a nice, sensitive, considerate guy even though he had clawed his way to the top of his company and made lots of financial deals. Sorry, but guys like him are NOT nice! On the plus side, the scenes with Redford and Dafoe were mesmerising; two fine actors teasing their way through their characters and slowly building up a relationship. The slow building up of tension, the "what is he going to do, is he telling the truth or not?" questions kept me gripped. If the film had been stripped down to just these two, I would have been happy.