La scomparsa di Sidney Hall

I thought the first half was very slow and boring, but somehow still intriguing.

The ending completely stunned me though and completely changed my opinion of this film.

The story is gripping, the acting is flawless, the humour is funny, the ending is worth the wait, but... the transitions between the main character's life periods are confusing, especially between adolescence and young adulthood, if you are not paying close attention. In addition, you are not sure what the main character is feeling and you remain a spectator throughout. A good film though, I am glad to have seen it.

Even though Sidney Hall is not perfect, it's a compelling story with some nice writing, and in my opinion, superb acting by Lerman and Fanning. It has a weird way to tell the story, starts somewhere in the end and then jumps through timeline several times. But after all, it does make sense. In fact, I loved last 20 minutes of the movie. It gave all the answers, they made sense, and it was kinda sad.

Shawn Christensen's the Vanishing of Sidney Hall while certainly not a masterpiece of film-making manages to captivate, perplex and leave the viewer with a lot to think about. The non-linearity of Christensen's direction is nicely implemented and clearly translates the script to the screen. The cinematography, I believe, is beautiful and produces a pleasing effect. As for the acting, it is above average but not inspiring enough to make the viewer jump out of his seat. Finally the overall delivery of the story is what make's most critics negatively view this film. It somewhat feels rushed, the climax is supposed to enrich us with drama and inject us with emotions about the characters but in fact fails to do so. I believe it should have revealed more drama during the progress of the story and not the finale. Still, this film does not deserve a low rating, it is not as bad as critics say.

This character story isn't quite the mystery that I was expecting from the title. Sidney Hall, famous writer, willingly disappears, and it's a character piece about why and how. It's slow at times with some great dramatic beats, but overall, I found the whole thing to be a bit too sad to be enjoyable. Thoughtful filmmaking though.