[6]

Robert Redford gets kidnapped, leaving his wife Helen Mirren home with their adult children to try and figure out what the hell is going on. The Clearing divides its time pretty equally between Redford’s and Mirren’s storylines. Redford’s kidnapper is played by Willem Dafoe, who walks him into the woods and claims to be taking him to a cabin where the real bad guys are. Mirren’s storyline brings up Redford’s past affair and new indiscretions, interactions with the FBI, and climactically, an interaction with the kidnapper. I thought The Clearing worked best whenever Mirren was on screen. That dame can sell almost anything, and I liked seeing her wrestling with her convictions, speaking with her husband’s lover, and going behind the FBI’s back to try and save her husband. Redford and Dafoe’s scenes play more like a student film, with the men practically having a picnic and talking about their regrets at one point. Craig Armstrong’s sparse and sappy score is also a little too on-the-nose.