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)

I was rather entertained for the majority of the movie. I hadn't really been criticizing it and was just enjoying what I though was a "decent" movie. THEN, when the kidnapper and the hostage were in the woods the film took a stupid sudden twist that completely turned me off. Redford's hostage character had strangled the kidnapper and made him unconscious. He could have ran away, finished the job and killed him, smashed him with something, anything! Instead he gets up and goes over to put his face against the tree, facing with his back away from the kidnapper. Oh and of course the kidnapper regains consciousness and finds the gun in the mud puddle. I was so "disappointed" with the movie at that point that I just abruptly turned it off! I understand that the plot had to go in that direction to accommodate the ending, but what disappointed me was that Redford's character didn't even try to get away and even turned his back on Defoe's character. It was just plain stupid and inexcusable. So bad to me that it even ruined what I had actually watched of the movie. That was the only part of the movie that I didn't like. What I watched up until that part wasn't too bad.

Maybe it is just me but I was really disappointed with the film. It seemed to start off okay and for awhile there I thought it was going to be a good movie. But then the end came and it seemed to me as if the writers couldn't quite figure out how to end it.It also raised a huge number of questions as to how this unemployed person (Arnold) could manage to do all the things he did in the time he did. For example, there were at least two cars he had available to him. If he was unemployed how would he have had two cars and presumably another one at home that he normally used. He was never shown with any voice recording equipment yet he managed to play a recording of Wayne's voice over the phone. What was his contingency plan if Eileen hadn't turned the car around and come back? Would he have stayed out there in the wilderness all night? Didn't his wife wonder where he was being away all day and how would he have explained his dirty clothes (resulting from the fight)? Why didn't he use the money like he said he was going to? There are lots more questions but that'll do I think. As I said I didn't like it and think it was a complete waste of time and effort to make and I regret the time I wasted watching it.

The makers of this film didn't know whose story it was; Redford's, Mirren's or Dafoe's and in any event were unable to bring any of the possible stories to a satisfactory conclusion. The implication at the end is that the Mirren character who has lost her husband in a mindless killing should be contented with a scribbled note on a piece of paper in recompense. Hello! Having a ghostly Redford appear to her at the end was a real cinematic copout!This film started well but eventually disintegrated into a narrative slough. Least satisfactory film I have seen in some time.