Cleaner (2007)

Tom Carver (Samuel L. Jackson) is a former police detective, who turned crime scene cleaner. Which he cleans up the mess of people who committed suicide, accidental deaths or murder. After police are done investigate the crime. When Tom does his next clean-up of someone was murder in a high profile mansion. Then he later finds out that he was unwillingly set-up for a cover up. Which his supposedly last client Ann Norcut (Eva Mendes) is starting to ask questions why Tom was in her house, when no one was home. While his former partner (Ed Harris) tries to help Tom with the problem he's facing and while Tom's daughter Rose (Keke Palmer) is trying to ask her father, why her mother was murder awhile back. While the father and daughter relationship proves to be increasingly difficult, since Tom is never quite there for her.

Directed by Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2:Die Harder, The Covenant, Mindhunters) made an stylish, interesting, sometimes very fascinating film. Harlin's latest film certain matured a lot, after making Hollywood movies they were always Hits or Misses. The visual style of the picture are the highlight. Scott Kaven's (Cabin Fever, the upcoming Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race) cinematography are also good. The actors in the film gives good performances. The relationship between the father and daughter are one of the best parts in the picture. While the premise of first-time screenwriter Matthew Aldrich is somewhat original but his script could have been more complex.

DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an strong Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD includes an interesting audio commentary by the director, deleted scenes and a digital copy of the movie. This might have came straight to DVD in North America but it came out in Overseas in several European countries. Jackson, who's terrific as usual also worked with director Harlin in the underrated "The Long Kiss Goodnight" and the wildly entertaining "Deep Blue Sea". Which Jackson is also one of the producers of this feature. Luis Gusman appears in a small supporting role is always a hoot in any features he has appeared in. Robert Forster appears in a cameo as well. Fans of film noir will be modestly entertained by the movie. Certainly worth a look. Super 35. (*** ½/*****).

Fmovies: A few years ago there was an incredible segment on NPR's "This American Life" about a cleaner of crime scenes. Shortly thereafter, Pruitt Taylor Vince played a character that felt indebted to this NPR piece on "C.S.I." ("Swap Meet"). The bringing together of science and death was perfect for the CBS show. I wasn't so sure if such a character could survive a Renny Harlin film.

Pity poor Renny Harlin. It still feels that he's trying to recover from CUTTHROAT ISLAND (1995). His last few films have been lucky to even snag a U.S. theatrical release (MINDHUNTERS wasn't one of these), much less a festival screening. So, that must mean that Harlin is back on top, right? Yes and no.

That CLEANER is playing a film festival is a vote of confidence in the Finnish filmmaker. Yet, CLEANER is a strange choice for a festival program. It's very much a straight-forward thriller along the lines of KISS THE GIRLS or U.S. MARSHALLS. The presence of Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, and Luis Guzman certainly does well to give the film some credibility and solid performances (though Eva Mendes feels completely out of her league). The script by Matthew Aldrich is a solid, albeit fairly predictable, effort and Harlin does a capable workman's job bringing it to life. I won't object to seeing this one again on cable.

What ever happened to Hollywood creativity? There was an interesting idea , about the guy who cleans up the crime scenes and discovers the cover-up of some kind. So far so good, and then it all goes downhill It takes all of grand 5 minutes to completely figure out the whole plot. This movie is ridden with the tritest of clichés. Characters couldn't be more boring and predictable. And the tragic part is,in all of this you could see the potential for a great thriller. It looks like the talentless, behind the scenes moneymakers, once again asserted their rights and ruined yet another movie. Will someone finally get rid of this morons and let the filmmakers do their job as they seem fit.

Cleaner fmovies. Tom Cutler is a crime scene cleaner – his company is contracted to remove the blood and gore left behind when the authorities have removed the bodies. A former cop, Tom is also a widower with a teenage daughter to look after. Tom gets a job like any other and cleans the mess from a bloody murder in a rich neighbourhood so that nothing remains for the family to see. He goes back the next day to find the family home but that they have no knowledge of his work or indeed that anything untoward happened. Trying to contact the cop who gave Tom the job turns out to be a dead end and a fake name, meaning that Tom has effectively deleted all evidence of a murder before anyone else knew about it. When the police launch a "missing persons" enquiry into a high-profile man in a police corruption case, Tom quickly finds himself up to his neck in trouble.

The cast attracted me to this and I wondered why, with all these people involved, I hadn't heard of it. Watching it helped me understand why it never came to my attention because it doesn't ever get going before it hurts itself. The concept is good enough as we have a former police officer now cleaning crime scenes used to delete the record of murder. On paper what happens also works well as skeletons come out of the closet and the stakes get higher as Tom nears the truth, however when it comes to delivery on screen, it all falls apart. The opening of the film is brisk enough but when it gets to the point where it has to start doing something (ie specifically when the crime is discovered) the film seems to slip into neutral gear and just coast on as before. As a result we get lots of stuff that don't work and should have been minimised or removed and also lots of stuff that is too average to impress.

What I am talking about is the lack of pace and tension in the film; I know that Tom is an older character and that a good thriller doesn't need shouting or running to engage but this film definitely needs some energy injected into it. It drags its way through the plot to the obvious conclusion (and, detail aside, it is pretty obvious) and it never really made me sit up and take notice. A lot of the problem is with the writing because on one hand we clearly have a film that is put together as a thriller but then on the other hand the writer seems keen to drive the film from the characters. Thus we have scenes of domestic troubles, moments with characters revealing things about themselves and, to be blunt, too much talking. It wouldn't matter if the film did this in a way that engaged me but at the same time it is attracting you with the thriller plot so that all this other stuff feels like a waste of time – they could have worked together but here they don't.

The cast can do nothing with it either, although none of them really help themselves. Considering what better films all those involved have done, it is disappointing to see them struggle or fail in different ways. Jackson appears to have been mis-directed because he is looking for something from within his character instead of just flicking into "thriller mode". Neither the material nor the film rewards this approach and his performance ends up feeling like another distraction. He does work well with Palmer though (who herself is very good) but again this whole side of the film feels like a distraction. Harris is obvious and a bit lazy, while Guzmán plays it the way you expect. Mendes is the biggest let-down for me. I know many don't rate her but I think she is good at w

I had very low expectations for this movie. Renny Harlin hasn't made a decent movie in many years so I expected the usual crap, but i was very surprised. It had good plot, very nice acting and was well made. Samuel L. Jackson plays a retired police officer who has a "Cleaning company". He cleans up murder scenes and other scenes of death. One day he does a job in a mansion and gets trapped in a web of deceit.

The Movie unfolds in a low key, unusual for Renny, which usually has lot of noise and action in his movies :) It has lot of blood though(not surprising given the title...) So basically this movie is a good way to spent hour and half. Hopefully Renny boy is out of the slums....

Just checked Renny Harlin's data in IMDb and this movie (which completely departs in quality and style from his previous work) is NOT mentioned, can anyone correct this please? About the movie itself, great detail in photography, many small takes that help make it much more enjoyable, good music, Jackson and Harris great performers as always, although Mendez is not as convincing in her role, maybe it's that I have never perceived her as a very good actress, but if the intention was to pass her as a subtle femme fatale then I guess she's worth checking out. The girl playing Tom's daughter does not feel completely convincing as a troubled young woman, maybe this is more the director's fault than a lack of talent from the actress' part. Mr. Guzman's parts are very intense, this guy almost always steals the scene in which he appears, we have seen him grow steadily in each movie and he really delivers.