50
Just an OK thriller, full of standard scenarios and cookie-cutter characters.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
Wants to be at any given moment--wrenching, thought-provoking, surprising, heartbreaking--all it ever is is tastefully lifeless. It’s been beaten into a coma by its own scruples.
63
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
The Clearing is being positioned as "adult counter-programming" for the summer season, but the benefits of seeing this movie may not be worth the patience necessary to get through it.
50
It never adds up to much. There's a fair amount of fine acting (with that cast, how could there not be?), but it's in the service of a story that bubbles without ever boiling.
60
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
The real problem is that Brugge and Haythe fail to satisfactorily pull off either the thriller or the marital deconstruction.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
The Clearing is what's known in the biz as an alternative for adult moviegoers. Which is to say the film is a performance-driven drama devoid of special effects and loud noises. On the contrary, it's a meditation on midlife weaknesses and compensation.
75
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
The pleasures of this endeavor, directed with a keen eye for detail by Pieter Jan Brugge, come from what the actors bring to the material.
70
Classy, decorous and well acted, directorial debut by Hollywood producer Pieter Jan BruggePieter Jan Brugge is nicely crafted but too buttoned up to generate more than polite interest, much less the urgent excitement a kidnapping story might be expected to trigger.