I love this movie so much

Wow! Such a good movie.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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.

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

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER -- MAJOR SPOILER -- MAJOR SPOILER -- MAJOR SPOILER So why was this film relatively unsuccessful at the box office and in the eyes of critics? Well, I attribute that to far too many flashbacks, which sometimes become confusing. Flashbacks are a necessary tool in some movies, but even then they can be overdone...as they are here...but how would you tell this story without some flashbacks when the main character is murdered early on during the kidnapping? Perhaps a totally different story -- rather than modeling the plot on a real incident -- would have been preferable.My disappointment in the plot -- which seems a fairly common criticism of this film -- is softened some by the strength of the performances. While the official casting order is Robert Redford, Helen Mirren, and Willem Dafoe, I actually think that top billing should have gone to Willem Dafoe. Dafoe is a remarkable actor -- usually supporting -- and I can't think of a time I've been disappointed in his performance...and that is no less true here. Although Robert Redford was certainly showing his age (68) in this film, he was playing a character perhaps 10 years younger. And despite his advancing age, it doesn't seem as if Redford's acting ability has diminished one iota. However, more praise is deserved by Helen Mirren. Always good, here she plays a woman who is torn between love for her kidnapped husband and a feeling of betrayal as she learns that an old affair her husband had didn't end as she thought it had; she is also exhausted by the whole ordeal...a wonderful performance.Matt Craven is worthy of mention. He plays the lead FBI agent, and does very nicely here, although all too often he is reduced to minor roles in motion pictures.This is certainly not Redford's finest film, and I doubt many people would want to watch it more than once...but it is worth watching once to see finely crafted acting performances.

well it is always more fun to write about films that are rubbish than films that are good, since the latter should leave you speechless. this isn't entirely bad but it is bad enough to write about. it is stylish enough, but scratch the surface and it is really quite average. rich man, boring middle class family, an affair, and a kidnapper whose life is s***. the film's slowness is not necessarily a problem because there is some tension in it but a lot of unanswered questions. it was a nice coincidence that it started raining just when redford was able to escape but amidst the noise and poor vision in the storm why didn't he just leg it and run like billy-o? why did he hang around behind a tree and try to disable the guy he could easily have got away from? also, and maybe i am missing something, but how did arnold communicate with the family and send blood when he was out in the woods with robert redford?