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.