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

When Tom and Ann are sitting in the Church, the back of another person sitting next to them on the pew suddenly materializes.

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Quotes

Eddie Lorenzo: [repeatedly] She was gonna have our baby, she was gonna have our child.

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Connections

Referenced in In the Land of Women (2007)

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Soundtracks

Thank God I Got the Blues
Performed by Big James
Written by James Montgomery, Andrew Garver
Published by Jomot Music Label (ASCAP)
Courtesy of Jomot Music

User Reviews

A mess in need of a cleaner

Last seen together in "The Spirit", Samuel L Jackson and Eva Mendes are cast again in a thriller that sports an interesting concept, only to have that concept crumble towards the end, chunk by chunk. Not surprising then, that having worked with Jackson twice before, director Renny Harlin steps out of the action league for something along the lines of a whodunit crime thriller.

For the most part, Jackson delivers in his role as a retired police detective currently in the business of cleaning up gruesome remains of the dearly departed. Could the title have been any more original? As Tom Cutler, his narration during the opening credits takes us through the repulsive and often overwhelming process of cleaning up a crime scene after forensics have taken away the corpse. As with most cases of death, natural or unnatural, the body is usually taken away for further examination by the coroner, leaving the next of kin to deal with the unsightly job of cleaning whatever remains are left at the scene of death. This is where Cutler comes in, a self employed private cleaner paid by the grieving next of kin to have blood, gore and other fluids spotlessly removed. On one such assignment, Cutler meticulously refurbishes the scene of a blood splattered homicide to its original setting only to learn shortly after, that the cleaning order did not come from the family of the deceased. Complicating the scenario is the absence of a dead body, with the wife of the supposed victim not being aware of a cleaning order in the first place. Realizing that he may have inadvertently destroyed evidence of homicide, Cutler confides in best friend and ex-partner detective Eddie Lorenzo. While Lorenzo (Ed Harris) and Cutler dig deeper into the mystery, they stumble across an increasingly evident case of police corruption of the highest order, a case in which Ann Norcut's (Eva Mendes) missing husband may be been a victim of. In the ensuing plot twist, Cutler establishes a motive, but not before establishing a link between Ann Norcut, Eddie Lorenzo and a ledger of cops on the take.

From a directional perspective, Harlin's attempt at a genre outside his league is undeniably fresh and almost flawless. His use of under toned cinematography evoking a dark atmosphere intentionally disguises the film's secret of a murder most foul. Casting is also stellar with an exceptional performance from Harris, spot on chemistry between Jackson and Keke Palmer in an unstable father-daughter relationship and one of the best roles played out by Luis Guzman as the all too suspicious yet tough detective Jim Vargas. What undermines the potentiality of this being a superb thriller is the total disregard given in founding a solid plot. Not matter what the positives are here, the plot fails to carry its own weight and comes crashing through the roof in a disappointingly predictable second half. All said and done, figuring out who the killer is won't require any special powers of deduction, the biggest mystery perhaps is trying to figure out if the killer had an accomplice and if so, what becomes of this accomplice. Numerous other holes aside, the main problem may be the direction the plot takes, where Jackson's narration in the beginning suggests an indication of dark humor, whereas Palmer's narration in the end suggests something else altogether. In the end, what could have become a sensational whodunit along the lines of "L.A. Confidential", gets reduced to a half baked has-been, any 'Nancy Drew' fan would rather not write home about.