Redford and Dafoe

The Clearing (2004)

Short: Executive Wayne Hayes (Robert Redford) is kidnapped by ex-employee Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe), who demands a $10 million ransom from Wayne's wife, Eileen (Helen Mirren).

And that's what happens. Sounds pretty exciting, right? Three talented leads with an interesting premise to work with.

It is, unfortunately, complete forgettable. Within an hour of watching it, I recommended it to my then roomie Eileen. A day later, I couldn't remember why I wanted her to see it. Regardless of my short term memory flaws, movies tend to stick with me. In such a case as this, The Clearing had absolutely no staying power.

I can't pin point the reason why, but Justin Haythe's screenplay and Pieter Jan Brugge's direction are just so boring. Wayne and Arnold's story is intercut with Eileen's story. Eileen's story, however, takes place over a few days while Wayne's is merely one day. This device should have added to the tension, but it just made it all the more confusing.

Also, much was made in the initial reviews about the "psychic connection" between Wayne and Eileen, which manifested itself not the least bit in my viewing.

Plus the trailer has a scene from nearly the end of the movie, so I found myself impatiently waiting for that one scene to somehow fit into this mess.

I've been sitting here wrinkling up my nose at the screen, trying to find something in particular to talk about with this movie. But nothing exists! It's almost as though there is no movie because of the way it only exists in shadows in my memory. C-