The Clearing

Dutch film producer Pieter Jan Brugge makes his directorial debut with the dramatic thriller The Clearing. Affluent executive Wayne Hayes (Robert Redford) and his lovely wife, Eileen (Helen Mirren), live in a beautiful home in Pittsburg. One day, Wayne is kidnapped by disgruntled employee Arnold ...more

The directorial debut of producer Pieter Jan Brugge, this drama disguised as a thriller is more interested in the psychological journey undertaken by its three principal characters than it is in the trappings of its genre. For much of the film, that creative choice works. There are plenty of reasons, early on, to become engrossed; the fact that the seemingly placid, happy marriage of Wayne (Robert Redford) and Eileen (Helen Mirren) is troubled enough that at first, she is not certain if he has ...more