Superb acting, not gimmicks, gives 'The Clearing' its panache

Friday, July 2, 2004

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC

Big Studio Hollywood has reached the point where it's simply no longer willing to risk money on serious drama that doesn't have a flashy gimmick or a lot of violence. So even the biggest stars who want to be in one now have to turn to the world of small-budget indies.

MOVIE REVIEW

THE CLEARING

DIRECTOR: Pieter Jan Brugge

CAST: Robert Redford, Willem Dafoe, Helen Mirren

RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes

RATING: R for brief strong language

WHERE: Egyptian

GRADE: B

Hence, we have Robert Redford in Fox Searchlight's "The Clearing," which is, ironically, exactly the kind of film he has personally avoided through the 25 years his Sundance Institute has been fervently encouraging their production by others.

And, in its own small way, it's good. As directed by first-timer Pieter Jan Brugge (who produced "The Insider"), it's a moody, minimalist kidnap drama we experience through two absorbing dramatic tracks that do not take place in the same time frame.

The victim (Redford) is the self-made chief executive of a car rental business and his kidnapper (Willem Dafoe) is a former employee who's been out of work for so long he's given up looking, and feels so angry and guilty about what he's become that he's been pushed to this extreme measure.

But while this part of the story takes place over one day, most of the film is seen over a longer period of time through the eyes of the victim's wife (Helen Mirren), who has to deal with the FBI, her grown children, the ransom demand and the discovery that her hubby has a mistress.

Brugge is an astute visual storyteller, the script (by Justin Haythe) goes to some unexpected places before it's done and the performances are immaculate, especially Dafoe and the always-magnificent Mirren, who rarely gets a vehicle this worthy of her talent.

Redford is also strong, but his once beautiful face has become so ravaged that he's hard to look at. That may be a shallow criticism, but when the camera cuts to him it's a shock and an unpleasant reminder that, in the end, time gets even the most golden of us.