The Vanishing

I don't get this. Either the studios think that US audiences must be protected from downbeat endings or hollywood just likes to spit in the face of the cast and producers of the orignal Dutch version (Spoorloos). What is the point of messing with a perfect film? This remake is an insult to the actors in the original - and the american actors in the remake should apologise for stealing the roles that were performed so well by europeans. WATCH THE ORIGINAL NOT THIS POINTLESS REMAKE!

For all his intellectual credentials, Hannibal Lecter was just a pretentious dandy. The true thinking man's psychopath is Jeff Bridge's "Barney" in this story about one man's (Kiefer Sutherland's) obsessive, years-long search for a girlfriend who disappeared during a vacation. Barney is also perhaps the nerdiest, most passionless movie psycho ever, and for all these reasons one of the most terrifying. This film is light on gore and action (some might say "slow-paced"), but it is a disturbing look at the "banality of evil." I'm told that the original Dutch film of the same name is far more disturbing than even this.

Somehow, everything happened too fast in this movie.. which took away from the suspense and made it so awfully predictable. Trust me, the Dutch original is the way to go.

In 1993, Director George Sluizer got to give his Dutch horror/thriller Spoorloos (1988) the big budget Hollywood remake treatment, which meant that the script had to be heavily altered to suit, most notably the original film's downbeat ending being replaced by a new, more upbeat finalé. Sluizer's revamped thriller is slickly made with a great cast, and undemanding mainstream audiences will probably have a good time with it, but if you prefer your films to have a bit more of an edge, there's a good chance that The Vanishing's very American approach, with its predictable and far less shocking outcome, will leave you unimpressed.

Kiefer Sutherland plays writer Jeff Harriman, who puts his life on hold in order to try and find his girlfriend Diane (Sandra Bullock), who went missing during a stop at a service station. After three years of looking for Diane with no success, Jeff meets waitress Rita Baker (Nancy Travis) and romance blossoms. Jeff agrees to give up his search, but then he receives a message from a man named Barney (Jeff Bridges), who says that he is the one who abducted Diane, and if Jeff wants to find out what happened to his girlfriend, he must comply with his demands...

Bridges is a strange choice for Barney, the actor better known as a dashing leading man than for playing a psycho (with a bad haircut), and it takes a while to accept him in the role, but he eventually makes good; Sutherland, on the other hand, is perfect as the everyman thrown into a personal hell, his obsession driving him to take great risks, and Travis makes for a likeable heroine. Bullock is fine as the tragic Diane, but she isn't given a lot to do. Sluizer handles the action well enough, but the new 'happy' ending does take a bit of swallowing, and ultimately lacks the impact of the original movie. The Vanishing's finalé sees Rita tracking down Barney, using her guile to outwit the nutjob and save her man. It's formulaic stuff designed to appease the masses - nothing wrong with that, and I enjoyed it for what it was - but watch Spoorloos and see which one stays in the mind the longest.

As everyone who has reviewed this film here has mentioned, there are two versions of this movie, one Dutch, one American, both directed by the same fellow. Which should you see first? Which should you avoid, if any? Decide for yourself... I saw the Dutch version in 1994, and it absolutely blew my socks off. I was horrified, didn't want to keep watching it, but I was pulled in and couldn't stop until the brilliant, ultra-chilling, uncompromising finale. This was my first foreign film, and so I was completely unprepared for such a non-Hollywood experience. I will remember this movie for the rest of my life. Later on, I caught the American version in the theatres, watched it, a few thrills here and there, yadda, yadda. Jeff Bridges was pretty creepy, but quite frankly, I would have completely forgotten about it by now if it weren't for the original. It's not horrible, it just pales in comparison to a masterpiece.