Cleaner (2007)

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

Director:

Renny Harlin

Writer:

Matthew Aldrich

Stars:

Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, Eva Mendes

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

Tom Cutler, a retired police officer now runs a company which specialises in crime scene clean up. He is assigned a clean up job post a homicide. After doing the job he discovers that he has been conned into cleaning up a crime scene and must try to unravel the mystery behind what happened in that house.

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Plot Keywords:

scene of the crime | blood splatter | washing hands | pool of blood | police corruption | 

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Taglines:

Solving a crime can be dirty work.

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Genres:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for bloody images, some violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 January 2008 (Finland)

Also Known As:

Čistač

Filming Locations:

Bossier City, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Millennium Films,Anonymous Content,Hygenic Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min 93 min

Sound Mix:

DTS SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK (Renny Harlin): (Finland): In the scene when Tom (Samuel L. Jackson) tells Eddie (Ed Harris) about the book of bribed officers, "Helsinki" (capital of Finland) is spray painted on a concrete pillar.

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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.

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Quotes

Eddie Lorenzo: A man's gonna do anything for his family.

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Connections

Features The Philadelphia Story (1940)

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Soundtracks

Mend This Heart
Written by Barbara L. Jordan and William Peterkin
Performed by Crit Harmon
Courtesy of Heavy Hitters Music Group

User Reviews

Yet Another Twist on Police Corruption

CLEANER is somewhat of an enigmatic movie: it starts out as though it is going to be a sassy comedy about a retired cop whose job it is to 'clean up' after homicides (a distinctly messy and repulsive job), turns into a rather grisly crime investigation story, adds a dollop of 'ain't life grand', and finishes as an exposé of police corruption. The story line by Matthew Aldrich is further fragmented by being so full of holes that the audience has to toss credibility overboard in order to make it through, and the method of direction by Renny Harlin can't seem to settle on which style to take. It is all kind of a mess and justifies the straight to DVD move. The saving grace of the film is a cast of stalwart actors who can make even a shaky script palatable.

Tom Cutler (Samuel L. Jackson) is a 'retired' cop who makes his living cleaning up the gory remainders of criminal acts of homicide and other grisly crimes. We learn his wife was murdered some years ago, leaving him as a single father of the bright and charming teenager Rose (Keke Palmer). Cutler happens on an assignment to clean a particularly gruesome homicide scene in the home of one Ann Northcut (Eva Mendes in a nicely understated role) and as the convoluted story develops, Cutler realizes that the crime scene represents a culmination of forces that threaten to uncork a long history of police corruption - a history that involves him and his best friend Eddie Lorenzo (Ed Harris) and the tough Detective Jim Vargas (a terrific Luis Guzmán). How the story ties together and ends is too loose to convey and would ruin the minimal drama present.

Each of the actors, even the minor roles played very well by such artists as Jose Pablo Cantillo and Robert Forster, give it the full court press. But the see-through script and the jumbled camera work and direction prevent this from being a significant film. Grady Harp