The Vanishing

From the premise I almost thought this was similar to "The Lighthouse" with Pattinson and Dafoe. But this is nothing like that. While this is quite somber (for a movie with Butler in it), it is not nearly as intense or good as that. Still the movie is at least decent, with nice play between the 3 main characters. With some added flavor of others thrown in.

Being on an island can do things to your mind. When an outside "force" comes it adds a new ingredient to the mix. This is not always a good thing. And nothing comes for free either ... even if you don't know or haven't read up on the story, once you open something, you know you'll have to live with the consequences. Whatever those may be

The movie is not about the disappearance of the three lighthous keepers from 1900. That was just a pretext. It is about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Greed, guilt, suspicion... We always think that we are able to manage extraordinary circumstances, but do we?

When faced with extraordinary circumstances, people usually act as you would expect them to, based on who they were before the circumstance. Occasionally there are surprises. But usually a brave person reacts bravely, etc.

But most of us never get a chance to find out how we would react, because nothing precarious happens in our lives. For these three lighthouse keepers, something did. Something as simple as encountering another human. One thing leads to another. Such is life.

Sure, we could have used more back stories for all three men, and more time-period context. But this picture was simple and primal. Three men are isolated, a tough situation arises, survival instincts kick in, people make choices, and one way or another, resolution ensues.

The irony here, and I've yet to read anyone mentioning it, is that the good guys took possession of the bad guys' stuff and refused to give it back. Not vice versa.

Do you have brutal violence inside you? Do I? Who knows? Let's hope we never find out.

The photography and setting, the interior shots, the facial expressions, were all top notch. Great atmosphere, memorable tension.

The two older guys had been to the school of hard knocks presumably. But the young guy got an overwhelming jolt out of nowhere. His world turned upside down in more dramatic and overwhelming fashion than for the others. Yet in some ways, he handled it the best.

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.

Admittedly I am rating this higher than I think it should be rated. I am doing this to do my part in bringing the overall rating up. Many people decide whether or not to watch a movie, based on these ratings and I think more people should watch this movie. Did it have a slow pace? Yes. I thought the acting and story were fantastic. I see people complaining about the claim that this was based on real events. It was. The true story is that nobody knows what happened to the three men. This was simply a filmmakers take as to what might have happened. I have quite a bit of knowledge about what is known to have happened and the filmmakers did a wonderful job of including that in the movie. They simply filled in the blanks with what I thought was an intriguing story, and deep, engaging characters. Please don't let the overall rating dissuade you from watching. The people who didn't like this movie, are probably people who can't appreciate a movie without a high level of "excitement". I would give the flick an 8.5.