The Vanishing

some people are amazed by this movie, even chilled, but i thought it was a complete waste of my time. the entire first two acts of the film are great, setting up a tense situation where the viewer is intently waiting to see the dramatic climax. and then the whole thing goes to hell! my only qualm is that the ending is entirely unbelievable. no one, NO ONE, would volunteer for this uncertain fate. i can't believe that this man, the protagonist, would be so distraught that he'd volunteer to suffer the same fate as his mysteriously absent girlfriend. she was obviously dead; she never tried to make contact with her old life. so, either he is the world's laziest suicide, unable to commit the act himself, or he's an idiot. as i watched the movie, when the protagonist is presented with the choice of finding out what happened to Saskia by undergoing the exact same treatment, i almost turned the movie off. all i could think was that there was a third choice: beat the kidnapper into a pulp, take his ass back to your apartment, and torture the information out of him. not agree to die at the hands of the same bastard who killed your girl. hey, maybe i'm just too American to appreciate the emotional damage motivating this man's inexhaustible search, but all i know is that, given the same situation, my own need to know could be instantly replaced by an undying homicidal urge that i would gladly focus on the kidnapper who created this void in my life. i certainly wouldn't sign up to be buried alive. and just why does this budding killer bury people in the first place? he goes through all that preparation so he can just bury his victims? wouldn't he rather see their anguish? i just think all these characters are flat, thoughtless interpretations of how real people would conduct themselves in similar situation with similar motivations. i think this movie was written by a monkey with no human insight and the idea that people are genuinely frightened by this schlock causes me to doubt moviegoers more than i already do. personally, i think the deranged neighbor kid from Toy Story is more psychologically thrilling than this foreign rag.

According to Poe, without a traceable motive, anyone can commit murder with impunity. Thats what this movie documents. A sociopath who for an insane reason he's in his head concocted, plans and executes the perfect crime. His victim's lover refuses to give up on her disappearance, and begs the culprit for a private meeting, just so he may learn the truth. I cant think of a more successful development of a movie villain. The guy is plain evil, successfully living a double life that his family suspects, but is inclined to think of as a trivial extramarital fling. In France extramarital goings on, i assume Are trivial. You quickly loathe the man. He's rather hideous to look at, and his superior manner gets under your skin. Film is very well done, and the two hours is well paced. Understanding the murderers motives even upon revelation is somewhat confusing, and i dont think it was meant to be.

When I searched for "The Vanishing," all I could find was that abysmal "Americanized" version of the film starring Jeff Bridges. What a horrible mistake of a movie that was. Let's consider, instead, the original film in which a fellow and his girlfriend are on an outing when she vanishes without a trace. He becomes obsessed with discovering what happened to her. Whether he can be completely successful in his quest is the whole point of the movie. Why the original director would remake this little masterpiece in English with a Hollywood ending is completely beyond me. See the original. You won't soon forget it.

*Spoiler* This movie had promise and was for the most part well-done except for one plot point that rendered the rest of it completely stupid-- that the guy willingly puts himself in the same position as his wife "in order to find out the truth" from the killer. One could argue that he suspected the guy would kill him and did it because he wanted to die and be with his wife again, but come on-- you don't let the guy who tormented you for three years by kidnapping your wife kill you as well and get away with both murders. F*cking just acquiescing to that sh*t. So crappy. [][