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:

With some crimes nobody gets out clean.

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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

Renny Harlin: [Finland] In scene when Tom tells Eddie about the book of bribed officers, Helsinki (capital of Finland) is spray painted on a concrete pillar.

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Goofs

At the end, Ed Harris is pointing his gun at Samuel Jackson with the trigger in the rearward position, something that only happens when the double action/single action Beretta is cocked. The trigger should be at rest, in the forward position. When agitated, Ed cocks the hammer and we see that the trigger is still in the rearward position. Only at cocking should the trigger have gone from forward position to rear position.

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Quotes

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

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Connections

References Columbo (1971)

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Soundtracks

Knockin'
Written by Sean Ike
Performed by The Elevations
Published by Three Degress Music (BMI) and Soul Pickle Songs (BMI)
Courtesy of North Star Media

User Reviews

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.