Vanishing
Whenever a famous, popular and acclaimed European or Asian film is remade for the American cinemas, the results can either wind up as being very popular or otherwise very reviled. What most of these remakes usually do not have though is the very same hand of the original director helming the American version, but thatās what we get here with this 1993 release, made 5 years after its original Dutch version (Spoorloos) with both films being directed by one George Sluizer. The original foreign language version received tremendous acclaim internationally from almost all who saw it (even receiving a Blu Ray release from The Criterion Collection) while the remake received quite a bit of scorn mostly due to the fact that the original ending (a quite horrific bit of business) was not so much changed but rather extended instead in such a way as to open the door for a typical Hollywood style happy ending. But one aspect which would have to be considered an improvement (or at least an enhancement) was in the casting of the villain for this 1993 version. Jeff Bridges was already well into the late career stage for his acting roles and here playing the psychopathic kidnapper / possible murderer of the story, he gives a mumbling, awkwardly mannered performance that hits all of the right notes when it comes to people like this we may have encountered in real life, a person who seems incredibly odd in their demeanor but yet takes great pains to appear to others as being both congenial and non threatening. Perhaps the scariest thing about him is his motive: Bridgesā college professor Barney Cousins is blessed with a loving family including his precocious young daughter who dotes on him. One day while out with his family, he rescues another young girl from drowning, an act that only makes his daughter love him even more since now heās a hero in her eyes. Being an overly intellectual type who seems to read too much into every little thing, he becomes obsessed with the notion as to whether or not saving a life actually made him a GOOD person or rather if he really only did it in order to impress his little girl. Likewise, he also becomes preoccupied with the notion of whether he is just as capable of committing an act of pure, coldblooded evil in order to balance out the flood of euphoria he had received from him saving a life. Obviously, only a complete and utter whackjob would think in this manner, but at least Bridges sells it to us by presenting his Barney as being a guy whom we find to be creepy even in happier moments with his family and also by the idea in his head that if he can play God by saving a life, can he also do so by taking one? So off he goes into the beautiful scenery of Washington State, searching for a female victim whom he can pick out and snuff their life away at random. This is where he finds a young couple played by Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock (on the cusp of her superstardom at this point), just tooling around sightseeing until they stop at a gas station and Bullock goes inside to buy some supplies and never comes back. At this point it is Sutherland who takes the reins as the de facto lead character of the film, starting off with finding himself being talked down to by a bullying cop who tells him to āwait 24 hoursā before filing a report (plenty of time for any sick psycho to do what he wants with Kieferās girlfriend and then cover their tracks) and then embarking on a tortuous, obsessive 3 year odyssey of not only searching everywhere for Bullock, but also plastering up posters of her face everywhere and even appearing on local talk shows in order to keep her name out there for everyone to know about. All the while Bridges is observing from afar, obviously admiring Sutherlandās perseverance and refusal to give up when naturally law enforcement had already given up long ago. In the meantime, Sutherland has managed to acquire a new girlfriend (Nancy Travis), a diner waitress in what appears to be an empty gesture on his part to āmove on with his lifeā when in reality he is now going to elaborate measures to continue with his search without her finding out. Eventually, Bridges decides that the time is right to make his move, one that is motivated by his own personal curiosity to see if Sutherland will play along willingly on the pretense that he will get the answers that he is looking for. Upon approaching Sutherland and identifying himself, he is dealt a severe assbeating as only Jack Bauer could hand out, but Bridges remains steadfast in his resolve that he doesnāt have to say a word to him about Bullockās fate until Sutherland calms down and does what heās told, leading to the two of them riding off together. Now the original Dutch production would head rapidly to an extremely downbeat ending which by itself alone has helped it to garner much of its fame (hint: the bad guy wins), but after being told that it was unacceptable by Hollywood standards (reportedly the final word came down halfway through filming), Sluizer would improvise and expand Travisā role as the new girlfriend, a move that at least (by default) expanded Bridgesā role too, a definite plus as the second half of the film is fueled by Bridgesā incredibly unnerving persona as it clashes with Kieferās desperate hero and with the mind games which he also plays with Travisā interloper. It really is quite a monstrous antagonist that we have on display here, one that not only could be a person who we could run into in real life, but for whom any insight which we can get or perceive into his thought processes would be quite fascinating, as one can presume with his academia background that Bridgesā Barney might very well be an atheist whom (since he wouldnāt believe in Heaven or Hell) would not care about selling his soul in order to commit acts of pure evil since his attitude probably figures that we all would just wind up in the same place and hence has no qualms about even considering such actions in the first place. But his genuine love for his family (and especially his own daughter) and tendencies to be polite without fail all hidden underneath a bumbling demeanor and a halted, deliberate nature to all of his physical movements (making one wonder if Bridges had perhaps gone full Method to play this role) along with a noticeable aversion to physical pain which is common with most cowards makes this stand out as being one of his best (and most underrated) performances, that of a complete nutcase with homicidal impulses who nonetheless goes out of his way in making people think that heās normal and thus, harmlessā¦
8/10