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The Clearing stars Robert Redford as Wayne Hayes, a leader of men and a self-made millionaire. One day, as he's heading out the door, his wife Eileen (Helen Mirren) reminds him that they're having company for dinner. When he doesn't show up for dinner, she knows something is wrong. What she soon finds out is that he's been kidnapped. On his way to work, he meets Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe). Arnold pulls a gun on Wayne and brings him to the woods. There, he leads him up a mountain where he tells Wayne that there are some more men waiting for him. As it turns out, Arnold is a little jealous of Wayne's success. While everything seemed to fall into place making him the rich man that he became, Arnold on the other hand spent 17 years in the same job before getting canned with nothing to show for his years of service. So, by holding Wayne hostage, somehow he's gonna make it all right. He's taking the quick (but not so easy) route to the wealth he so desires. Meanwhile, Eileen contacts the police, the feds are soon involved and like Eileen, all we can do is sit around and wait for the drama to unfold.

The Clearing was a pretty good movie. It's slow. It's methodical. And it's worth the investment of your time. There's no action. There's no special effects. Instead we get a finely tuned story with some intriguing characters that are nicely developed by the respective lead actors. There are some nice twists, and the movie had me on the edge of my seat throughout. And although half way through the movie I began to realize where the story is going, I was still into this movie - due in most part to how well the story was told and acted.

The DVD, now available, comes with only a few special features - but ones that do nicely to complement the picture. First, there's an audio commentary by film editor Kevin Tent, screenwriter Justin Haythe and director Pieter Jan Brugge. Much like the movie, the commentary is low-key. Like I said, all there is to this movie is the story and the characters, so naturally, that's what the commentary details. Not a lot on how the movie was made - but more about movie itself - filling us in on subtle nuances of the plot and what was going on in the characters' minds. This was a nice touch.

The special features also included some deleted scenes with optional commentary. The most notable here includes a scene where Arnold talks about his new job and how demeaning it is. Otherwise, nothing that really added to the film, but still nice to see some of the plot changes that were referenced in the commentary. There's also a full-length screenplay of the film. Again, nice because reading it gives just a little more insight into the story and the characters. This may also be nice for any aspiring writers out there looking for some pointers.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with The Clearing. Knowing the cast, I was sure this one would be worth watching even before I started, but once I got into the story, much like the journey of Wayne and Arnold, there was no turning back.