The Vanishing

What a breath of fresh air. I don't mean the literal air on these desolate island but a movie without an intrusive soundtrack or where the producers have made sure every scene is fully explained to a dumb audience. A stark production from a director moving up from TV for the first time and showing talent in the way that Spielberg did with Duel. Strong acting from a small bunch of blokes in a claustrophobic environment.

Really enjoyed this one. Fantastic acting across the board. Really great suspense, choice of music, everything was perfect. I really felt like I was on this lonely island in the middle of the raging ocean with the 3 characters, fighting against the unknown. Was a great experience overall and I rate it 10/10 when wheighing it against the usual trash full of senseless violence and bloodshed; this one contains some of that for sure - but there is a great story to go side by side.

Im not sure why alot of people are rating it so low. It starts off a little slow but from the time they find the guy at the bottom of the cliff, you know now it's all going to kick off. Tense and gripping from that moment on I really enjoyed the movie and the ripple effect of every action there after makes. It's a good movie.

I get that this is a low budget Scottish film, but you would think at least just one of the 22 producers in this film would have complained about the plot-issue filled writing before rolling the cameras, and fine tuned the screenplay and final cut. Actors turned first-time full length film writers Joe Bone and Celyn Jones had a great conceptual story to write a screenplay with, but they failed with the many plot issues, unanswered questions (Mercury?), unnecessary scenes and dialogue, long length, and slow pacing. Some scenes were either too long or short, too choppy or too fast. Where this film deserves praise is Kristoffer Nyholm's directing in his first ever full length feature film. Camera angles, close-ups/distant shots and directing his cast were all on point. Next praise goes to the outstanding score, which set the suspense and tension perfectly, and to the stunning setting visuals. Then there were the decent performances by all cast, especially Gerard Butler, but I did have difficulty in many scenes understanding what they were saying (accent perhaps). It's a shame such simple issues (e.g. hire a seasoned screenwriter to build on the story) weren't addressed, as I feel this film would have been near perfect. Nevertheless, still enjoyable and a well deserved 7/10 from me.