The Vanishing

I really wanted to like this movie. The setting is compelling, the casting is solid and all the actors perform decently well. It s also got some nice cinematography and a couple of truly great shots. The story starts out strong and the characters are established well in the first half. Sounds great so far, doesn t it Well, it is – until the story just falls apart in the last third of the movie. It feels like they had a existing script that they haphazardly tried to adapt to the real events that inspired this film and just couldn t make it work. The final conclusion makes little sense, some of the character s actions and changes in behavior can only be explained with we had to do it to make the ending work . The final chapter leaves you feeling unsatisfied and a lot of questions left to be answered. It s still an interesting title, but unfortunately drops down from the initial high mark to mediocracy.