The Clearing (2004)

Plot of The Clearing: A wealthy couple Wayne and Eileen Hayes live a luxurious life, illustrated by Eileen’s visit to their own large swimming pool while Wayne gets into his Lexus to go to work. At the gate of his mansion he opens a door to recover his financial newspaper, and finds himself facing a man with a handgun who kidnaps him.  The man is a former employee who guides him into the woods where they trek away from civilisation. Meanwhile Eileen is supported by their daughter and son and also by an FBI officer who takes up residence in the house. Eileen is in contact with Wayne’s mistress, a relationship which he had promised to discontinue. As time passes it devolves on Eileen to pay a ransom demanded by the kidnapper, despite the fact that she has no proof that Wayne is still alive, and the kidnapper is cunning, managing to collect the money without directly contacting her. How will it all end?

 Content: No sex or nudity, but possibly a bit of drinking. Wayne and his kidnapper Arnold, spend most of the film trekking through the woods, Arnold telling Wayne that he is part of a gang, but eventually when they have reached a ridge overlooking an endless forest he admits it is just him. Meanwhile, in a slightly different time frame the family and the FBI try to sort things out and wait to be contacted by the kidnapper who they think will ask for a ransom. And by the time we get to the third act we know that Arnold has killed Wayne, but still asks for the money.

A View: Robert Redford was sixty-eight when this film was made, and looked genuinely uncomfortable when trekking through the forest. But he was a big name in what is essentially a small film. The different time frames did not really work well and are a give-away for what was to happen. In a way it was sort of admirable that the makers of the film stuck to their source material, but on the other hand it did not make for exciting drama. Can’t say more but since this outing is only available as a download probably give it a miss.

Fun Fact: I don’t really think this is fun. But interesting. The perp in the 1987 kidnapping was released from prison in 2001.