The Clearing

2004 • 94 minutes

About this movie

Wayne and Eileen Hayes (Robert Redford, Helen Mirren) appear to be living the American dream. All illusions are shattered when Wayne is kidnapped in broad daylight from the Hayes' peaceful Pittsburgh estate. Under the microscope of a probing FBI investigation and her own painstaking introspection, Wayne's wife Eileen also becomes a victim. The interrogation introduces a life underneath outward appearances; the suspicions, the secrets, the inadequacies, and what can happen along the way to achieving the American dream. Suddenly the man who at one point in his life prided himself on being a cunning negotiator finds his fate resting in the hands of a kidnapper (Willem Dafoe) who has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Will he succeed in the most important negotiation ever... for his life?