Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

Redundant and unnecessary.

good film but with many flaws

Robert Redford and Helen Mirren are a married couple with no visible problems. They have a beautiful house, two grown, well-adjusted children, plenty of money, and job security. When Bob leaves the house for work one morning, he has no way of knowing it might be for the last time. . .As if I needed another reason to be afraid of Willem Dafoe, he abducts Robert Redford and holds him at gunpoint deep in the forest while demanding a ransom from Helen Mirren. While in a way The Clearing is a typical kidnapping movie, it's also far less entertaining than most in its genre. Mostly it's just depressing, and the secrets that are revealed about everyone's past aren't very surprising. The good guy-bad guy roles are very clearly laid out; Pieter Jan Brugge and Justin Haythe should have written a far meatier script to keep the audience enthralled. If you like this genre, try renting Trespass or Shattered instead.

In "The Clearing" (2004) Robert Redford plays a rich executive in the Pittsburgh area kidnapped by a working class guy (Willem Dafoe) while his wife (Helen Mirren) tries to handle the situation.Those hoping for a conventional Hollywood crime thriller will be disappointing by "The Clearing." This is a reflective adult drama/mystery about a kidnapping, based on a true story that occurred in Holland in 1987.While decidedly low-key, there are interesting psychological elements rooted in class warfare (the executive and kidnapper's relationship) and the nature of happiness in marriage and the stumbling blocks thereof (the executive, his wife and another woman). The three acting giants make the drama believable and compelling. There's only one roll-your-eyes part (the aftermath of the fight between two guys; you'll know what I mean when you see it).The movie has left some people confused, but it's pretty straight-forward and everything is there if you pay attention. The two story lines are not parallel. One takes place over the course of a single day and the other over several days and, ultimately, the better part of a year (you'll note the seasons change).The city scenes were shot in Pittsburgh and the forest scenes in the Asheville, NC, area. Some parts were shot in Atlanta as well.The film runs 95 minutes.GRADE: B+

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

i don't know what is on the director mind. After watching this movie I fell like I just wasting more than an hour of my life. I thought I will fell gratefully if I watch Tom and Jerry instead of this unbelievable movie. There is nothing good in this movie, I just don't get it, why its rating not that bad (6.0) . I think there are a lot of retarded give high vote to this movie, which of course it doesn't deserve any of those!! If this movie deserve to be rated 6/10 so maybe Tom and jerry should be rated 30/10. This is the way i express my depression toward this damn movie it totally kick my dick off, luckily i just watch it on DVD instead of movie cinema, because i don't think i will react normally after the end of the movie which will let others to think that i was a psycho.