An evolutionary thriller, The Clearing not only reinforces the status quo, it grinds the face of the economy's losers in the dirt and does a victory dance on their head.

| Jan 30, 2020

Good performances almost make it worthwhile.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 28, 2010

I just expected a lot more in the end, and really just didn't get it with a routine script, bland plot, and an ending that was too sudden to be accepted.

| Apr 29, 2009

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Mirren passes through entire scenes without a word, not needing to speak, as every feeling is writ large across her beautifully expressive face.

| Sep 16, 2005

It's pretty bland, even though the trailer would lead you to believe otherwise.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 17, 2005

...a very good thriller that could've (and should've) been a great one...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 15, 2005

[Mirren, Redford, and Dafoe] cannot get a fire going in this clich-soggy kindling.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 31, 2004

Lo que mantiene el inters es el cada vez ms impredecible comportamiento de la esposa, animada adems por una estupenda Helen Mirren (la mejor intrprete de la pelcula).

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 26, 2004

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 22, 2004

H dois bons filmes em Refm de uma Vida, mas estes se enfraquecem mutuamente em funo da estrutura narrativa adotada pelo cineasta.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 22, 2004

The first 10 minutes are promising, but then the film, a wannabe thriller, loses steam

| Original Score: C | Nov 14, 2004

...may not be the most exciting or well-focused drama of the year, but it manages to engage our intellect most of the time and keep us guessing well up to the end.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 7, 2004

A haunting film about the evil that men do.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 10, 2004

European sensibility controls The Clearing, a fact that might frustrate American moviegoers who arrive expecting something more flashy.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Aug 23, 2004

The Clearing is what it sounds like: stripped of ornamentation, undeluded about its subjects, lucid about the limits of human behavior.

| Original Score: B | Aug 10, 2004

Talky and mawkish.

| Aug 8, 2004

A thriller stripped of thrills -- or, even worse, a thriller that thinks of itself as somehow rising above the vulgar pleasures of excitement.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2004

What should make for a taut, suspenseful thriller drowns in an ocean of verbiage.

Full Review | Jul 31, 2004