Review of The Clearing (2004) by Nellie T — 07 Jun 2007

This could have been a brilliant movie, if the storyline was well-executed. I expected it to be a slower-than-usual movie, albeit one which would show many shades of the character Arnold (played by Dafoe). The other characters didn't get anything to do in this movie (I blame it on whoever wrote the screenplay, and the one who directed it). Dafoe's character could have been made more complex (which he really was, but the movie failed to show that) to make the movie more interesting.

Of course, as one of the comments in the boards mentioned, it's a movie which they tried to make complex so that users could feel intelligent when watching it. I think they failed miserably at even trying to make it complex, leave alone anything else. Dafoe's talent was way underutilized in this movie.