Product Description

In this riveting, tension-filled psychological thriller, a young woman (Sandra Bullock) mysteriously disappears, sending her boyfriend Jeff (Kiefer Sutherland) on a years-long quest to find her. Not even a new love (Nancy Travis) can keep him from his obsessive search. All the while, the calculating psychopath (Jeff Bridges) who kidnapped his girlfriend stalks Jeff, ultimately taking him through the exact same steps that led to the crime. In order to find out what happened, Jeff must put his own life in the hands of this devious stranger.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21491 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-07
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 109 minutes

Amazon.com
It's not unusual for Hollywood to remake European hits. What is unusual is the director of the original getting the chance to helm the new version with an American cast, which is what happened with this film based on an intensely creepy Dutch film of the same name (both directed by George Sluizer). Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock are on vacation when, while stopped at a crowded rest area, she disappears. He devotes the next several years to discovering what happened to her, ruining his life in the process. When he does get a clue, it leads him to Jeff Bridges, who plays a bizarre and highly organized individual whose motives are almost as strange as he is. Bridges is spooky, but Sluizer ultimately is undone by Hollywood's demand for a happy ending, which makes this film affecting but far less unsettling than the original. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

See the original
I had seen the original before the release of this film. I think it would make an excellent case study on just how badly Hollywood can mangle real cinema. Plot is almost exactly like original except that it has a ridiculous, hoaky, happy ending that was added to the end. The other annoying change is that the eerily 'normal' family-man psycho has been substituted with an obvious greasey slime-ball 'bad guy.' If you can stand subtitles, get the original, because this is drivel in comparison.

Be afraid...
An awful remake of the most brilliant, frightening thriller I have ever seen. If George Sluizer was attempting to pander to "American tastes," we should all feel insulted.

Five Stars For The First Half, Three Stars For the Second
I'll start out by saying I have neither seen the Dutch film of which this is a remake or read the novel THE GOLDEN EGG that was the source material for both movies. From reading a little bit about the acclaimed Dutch film it sounds like the first half of the Hollywood version of THE VANISHING follows the original movie very closely but then the second half becomes more of a "by the numbers" Hollywood thriller with some action sequences and the requisite happy ending for the survivors.

I'm not giving any spoilers aways by saying Jeff Bridges plays the kidnapper, Barney, as we see him practicing how to snatch a woman in the opening scenes. Bridges looks the part of a Barney who on the surface is a likable if somewhat eccentric chemistry professor. For some reason the American Bridges plays the part with some type of European (I think) accent which is quite jarring when the script states Barney was born and raised in Seattle and at one point even shows his birth certificate. Kiefer Sutherland is quite good as Jeff whose life becomes an obsession filled mess after the disappearance of his girlfriend more because of a burning desire to find out what happened to her then pure devastation at her loss. Nancy Travis plays Rita, Jeff's new girlfriend, whom he meets "cute" by coming in exhausted from his search for the missing Diane to the all night diner where she works. Rita later displays amazing talents as a detective and strategist so apparently was way underemployed in her waitress gig. Sandra Bullock as the very pretty and sympathetic missing Diane is very adequate but does not have a lot of screen time.

The first half of the film creates Diane and Jeff as believable characters caught in a nightmare. The second half relies too much on coincidences to move the plot ahead and pop psychology as motives for the characters' actions. If you like thrillers this is an OK way to spend a couple of hours but it seems the potential promised at the film's beginning is not even close to being realize by the end.