Cast: Robert Redford, Helen Mirren, Willem Dafoe, Alessandro Nivola, Matt Craven, Melissa Sagemiller, Wendy Crewson
Director: Pieter Jan Brugge
Producers: Pieter Jan Brugge, Jonah Smith, Palmer West
Screenplay: Justin Haythe
Cinematography: Denis Lenoir
Music: Craig Armstrong
U.S. Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
In some motion pictures, especially psychological thrillers, pacing is critical. A slow, methodical tempo can be an asset if a director uses it properly. It can be used to generate suspense and build tension. Action and death-defying stunts are not the only ways to keep viewers on edge. Unfortunately, managed improperly, deliberate pacing can render a movie inert. And in The Clearing, there are too many instances of the latter and too few of the former. There are times when this film drags.
The Clearing tells of the kidnapping of wealthy businessman Wayne Hayes (Robert Redford) by unemployed worker Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe). The story is related in two parallel pieces, with one focusing on how Wayne's family copes with the crisis and the other expanding on the relationship between the captor and his captive. While Wayne's wife, Eileen (Helen Mirren), and children, Tim (Alessandro Nivola) and Jill (Melissa Sagemiller), await a ransom demand, Wayne and Arnold struggle through the wilderness towards an ambiguous destination.
One of the disappointments with The Clearing is that, although first-time director Pieter Jan Brugge wants the interaction between Wayne and Arnold to turn into an intellectual cat-and-mouse game, the contest of wills remains underdeveloped, and, as a result, it isn't all that compelling. These two talk a lot, but most of their dialogue is mundane. In order to make the movie more involving, the tension between Wayne and Arnold needs to be elevated to a higher level than the one it attains. And, in an ill-advised attempt to inject a little energy into the movie, the screenplay resorts to a burst of action that is set up by a hard-to-swallow contrivance. Talk about smart characters doing stupid things…
Meanwhile, far away from the woods of western Pennsylvania, Eileen is coping as best she can with the loss of her husband, the poking and prodding into her personal life by the FBI investigator (Matt Craven), and the revelation that her husband's affair with a subordinate (Wendy Crewson) lasted longer than she had supposed. This part of the movie plays out a little like a police procedural, with law enforcement officials suggesting how to progress at each turn of the road. Because of the sheer force of the actress' performance, Mirren's Eileen is by far the most complete character in the movie. We feel her pain more acutely than that of Arnold or Wayne. Sometimes it takes less-than-perfect material for the full scope of an actor's ability to shine through; such is the case with Mirren in The Clearing. Dafoe and Redford are solid, but this is her film.
One could argue that The Clearing is intended to be as much a love story as it is a thriller. However, although it's true that the relationship between Eileen and Wayne is a major building block for the plot, this aspect of the movie never seems to be more than a secondary element - at least until the ending, when it is used to offer a brief catharsis. The moments that illustrate the legitimacy of the couple's feelings for each other are welcome because they enhance the characters, but they don't accomplish much else.
The Clearing is not without its high points. The way in which Brugge switches back and forth between the two ladders of the storyline is effective, especially since it involves skipping around in time. The Wayne/Arnold sequences occur over a much shorter time period than those featuring the family and the FBI, yet Brugge makes the transitions seem natural. Yet the lack of intensity in the confrontation between the kidnapper and his victim makes it easy to lose interest in the proceedings, and there are aspects of the resolution that feel as if the filmmakers are cheating in order to attain a sense of closure. 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.
© 2004 James Berardinelli