The Clearing

[ilovemovies]

Another movie opening this weekend that doesn't have it's own thread yet. Now that I've seen Spider-Man 2 this is the movie I'm looking forward to most this weekend. You can't beat the teaming of Robert Redford, Willem Dafoe and Helen Mirren and the trailer made this look fantastic!

[Beeblebrox]

Saw a special screening of this last week. A good movie, but marketed wrong, IMO. Do not go into this expecting a thriller or you'll be disappointed. It's more of a psychological drama, a deliberately paced one. Good. One of Redford's best performances. A nuanced portrayal by Defoe. Helen Mirren is always good, excellent here as Redford's wife.

[Tweek]

Fuck! It's opening THIS weekend?!

damn

[Strider]

The Clearing looks like an intriguing drama with a trio of excellent actors. I do want to see it, but it'll probably be awhile.

[Fisting Ackbar]

Originally posted by Strider
The Clearing looks like an intriguing drama with a trio of excellent actors. I do want to see it, but it'll probably be awhile.

Same with me.

[sharkstank]

the trailer is really good, and i wanna see it. probably dvd thgough

WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Moviefan1234]

Originally posted by Strider
The Clearing looks like an intriguing drama with a trio of excellent actors. I do want to see it, but it'll probably be awhile.

Indeed. Looks like something I'll like, but there are several movies I'm going to see first.

[Backstabba]

Originally posted by Strider
The Clearing looks like an intriguing drama with a trio of excellent actors. I do want to see it, but it'll probably be awhile.

Same...Willem Dafoe is great. I want to see this movie. But ill probably have to see it on DVD. (Not alot of independent film theaters around here)

[ColinM]

I would have seen this one just for the cast and the interesting trailer, but now that I’m hearing it’s less of a thriller and more psychologically based, I’m actually much more interested. Here are some quotes from Ebert’s review:

They know how to make a conventional thriller but are not interested in making one. Instead, they use the crime here as the engine to drive their parallel psychological portraits.

And

"The Clearing" doesn't feel bound by the usual formulas of crime movies.

This makes the film sound all the more fresh and intelligent, and makes me want to see it even more. The way he describes it also makes it sound like it has better character development than most kidnap movies, and it sounds like the best scenes are unpredictable ones that he can’t talk about without spoiling. Sounds good to me...

[chinton]

Ill make this short. Have to disagree with you Beeblebrox

For a while I thought this movie wa s being forgotten ebcuase it wa s a character based film in the summer. Its actually becuase it s a bad movie.


To sum it up it much ado about nothing. Everything is very vague in this fil and not very interesting. Dafoe's character and motives remain really hazy throughout the entire film. Also I think the movie was really trying to deconstruct Reford's and Mirren's marriage. Sadly it barely explored it and seemed to give up halfway through. Untimately we get to an ending thats supposed to be powerful but instead makes one say "Thats it."

A movie with a good concept that meanders here and there and never really does anyhting.


3.5/10

[Wildbilld]

Classic 4 Star Rating:
http://wildbilld.brinkster.net/pics/star.bmphttp://wildbilld.brinkster.net/pics/star.bmphttp://wildbilld.brinkster.net/pics/star.bmphttp://wildbilld.brinkster.net/pics/halfstar.bmp

Letter Grade:
B+

1-10 Scale Rating:
http://wildbilld.brinkster.net/pics/8stars.bmp