 The critics are also widely divided over The Clearing, starring Robert Redford and Helen Mirren. Up against Spider-Man and a raft of teen-oriented movie fare, the film is described as "solid summer counterprogramming" by Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News. Stephen Hunter in the Washington praises the performances of the actors, noting that for Redford, the movie could be called "an anti-vanity film," in which he allows himself to be "photographed in the least flattering of light, so that the ravages time has worked upon his face are fully exposed. This spirit of honesty extends to the character himself, which, far from being the heroic Redford of yore, is shown to have been flawed, weak, inadequate and far from heroic." But Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer describes it as "a suspense movie on Prozac. As still and flat as a lake on a windless day." Mike Clark in USA Today takes an in-between position, writing: "This is one of those moderately engrossing movies that seems to collapse all at once during the wrap-up, yet it's well-acted all around, especially by its star, who once again reminds us why audiences have liked him for 40 years." |
