Cleaner (2007)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Renny Harlin

Writer (WGA):

Matthew Aldrich (written by)

Release Date:

18 January 2008 (Finland)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Solving a crime can be dirty work.

Plot:

A former cop who now earns a wage as a crime scene cleaner unknowingly participates in a cover-up at his latest job. |

Plot Keywords:

Crime Scene | Murder Investigation | Morgue | Polaroid | Dictaphone

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Samuel L. Jackson	...	Tom Cutler
Ed Harris	...	Eddie Lorenzo
Eva Mendes	...	Ann Norcut
Luis Guzmán	...	Det. Jim Vargas
Keke Palmer	...	Rose Cutler
Maggie Lawson	...	Cherie
Jose Pablo Cantillo	...	Miguel
Robert Forster	...	Arlo Grange
Edrick Browne	...	Det. Darrin Harris
Marc Macaulay	...	Vic
Rosalind Rubin	...	Crying Woman
Mike Guy	...	Priest #1
Richard Folmer	...	Priest #2
James Barnes	...	Lawyer
Linda Leonard	...	Francine Mason

MPAA:

Rated R for bloody images, some violence and language.

Runtime:

88 min | Canada:93 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | Finland:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Canada:18A | Finland:K-15 | Australia:MA | Norway:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13 | Japan:PG-12 | Hungary:16

Filming Locations:

Shreveport, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Anonymous Content

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [Renny Harlin] [Finland]Finnish coat of arms and flag is seen on the mirror behind Tom when he's having conversation with Eddie in the hotel room.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: As Tom is sitting on the bed thinking of his wife he reaches under the bed for a box and the clock in the background reads 11:40. We then see a close up of Tom smelling her perfume and the clock now reads 11:38. This is not a goof, rather it's a passing of time, as Tom is going through a trance and loses sense of time.

Movie Connections:

Features His Girl Friday (1940)

Soundtrack:

Jim Brown

Beautiful Photography, Boring Plot and a Poor Ending

Cleaner is a surprisingly boring and lackluster movie beautifully photographed. The casting is superb and would seem to be a sure recipe for cinematic success--Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, Eve Mendes and Luis Guzman. The dialog is decent and well acted. The plot is where this movie just completely drops the ball.

The plot begins mildly unbelievably--A crime scene cleaner becomes unwittingly immersed in the cover up of a homicide--and then just snowballs downhill from there into a huge police cover-up (I don't want to "spoil" anything for any potential viewers) with an unbelievable plot twist and then ends in a thoroughly stupid and highly implausible ending.

The upside and downside is this movie is beautifully filmed and with such talent, thought and effort that the cinematography itself keeps you thinking it has to get better and it only gets worse.

I hope Ed Harris got paid a lot of money to do this film! Ed does a great job with the little he has to go with and proves what a great actor he is. Eva Mendes does a poor job playing a recent widow to murdered husband (is she angry/sad/sexy/conspiratorial/or just a gold-digger who married a sugar daddy who just got knocked off?). Luis Guzman does a solid job as usual.

I seem to enjoy the movies where Samuel L. Jackson plays a supporting role or shares the lead rather than being the sole lead e.g. Pulp Fiction, The Negotiator, A Time To Kill, etc... In Cleaner he does a reasonable job with a poor plot until the end where his acting coupled with a bad plot twist left me wondering what I could have done better with the time it took to watch Cleaner.

All in all I wish this cast and DoP would have had a better script. I would recommend that Matt Aldrich stick to acting and give up the script-writing. As I think everything was done well except for the storyline/plot aka the script. I give kudos to Renny Harlin (director) for a job well done.