The Clearing

Writer/director Pieter Jan Brugge and co-writer Justin Haythe's The Clearing initially feels like a standard-issue kidnapping story, as car-rental tycoon Wayne Hayes (Robert Redford), who lives comfortably with his wife Eileen (Helen Mirren), is snatched from his driveway one morning by a creepy kidnapper (Willem Dafoe). But as Hayes and his abductor head for the woods, the film cuts back and forth between them and Hayes' fretting wife, trying to build an equal amount of suspense within each storyline, but raising more questions than it answers (when Eileen starts receiving items in the mail, we naturally wonder where in the woods did the kidnapper mail this from, and how did it arrive in less than one day?). While it turns out that the filmmakers have more on their plate than a simple kidnapping story, the film is ultimately more tiresome than suspenseful, and the confusing timelines of the two intercut story strands--one in hours, the other in days--doesn't help. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary (by director Pieter Jan Brugge, writer Justin Haythe, and editor Kevin Tent), six deleted scenes with optional commentary, stills of the full-length text screenplay, and a trailer. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a somewhat disappointing thriller.] (J.M. Anderson)