The Clearing is not a date movie. It is not fun or political,and it does not contain a single special effect. It is a simplestory that succeeds in being suspenseful and hauntinglyinsightful.
Robert Redford plays Wayne Hayes, a middle-aged upper-classbusinessman with a loving relationship with his wife that has beenplagued over the years with the usual problems of adultery anddespondence. He is kidnapped and led through the woods by ArnoldMack (Willem Dafoe), and the two converse about their lives,children and the choices that led them to this point in theirlives.
Meanwhile, Wayne's wife Eileen (Helen Mirren) and childrenexamine their feelings of who Wayne is as a man. The suspensebuilds as the family and FBI try to separate fact from fiction, andfollow the rule of engagement for kidnappers -- not to appeardesperate.
The end is a knee-jerk surprise that feels like a sucker punchbecause you sympathize with the characters, something rarely foundin a blockbuster kidnap movie.
What works so well in this film is that it is not a formulatedkidnapping movie with more bravado that fear. The antagonist is aman, not a villain, with real motives and real moral struggles,whose main motivation is that since his job layoff he lives in hisfather-in-law's house, with the deaf old man listening to thetelevision full blast all night.
In this way, a good film is all in the smallest details -- theglimpse into even the minor characters' internal struggles thatmakes the whole film painfully real, just as the film illustratesthat it is the details and the motivations that make up a life.
The Clearing is the kind of film that sticks with you a littlebit after you leave the theater.
