This is an interesting thriller with great acting by Kiefer Sutherland and Nancy Travis in their roles. Jeff Bridges showed that he really is a good actor but his "evil" doesn't really mesh with how he helps his students and his concern for their safety during chemistry experiments. The other problem with how the director has Jeff Bridges portraying the killer is the foreign accent and appearing mentally slow and socially inept at the beginning of the movie. I found the ending anti-climatic with Jeff Bridges and Nancy Travis' characters choosing not to write about the events of the disappearance of Sandra Bullock and how Kiefer's obsession with knowing what happened to her was used to ensnare him by a psychopath. The movie would have been better ending with the rescue and death of the killer.

The Vanishing starring Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, and Kiefer Sutherland was a much ignored film from 1993. Bullock wasn't a household name yet and Sutherland was just starting to show his acting chops. I like Sutherland in this film, his performance is haunting and intense. I think this film is based on another film, parts of this film are slow and tepid but great acting from the cast and interesting storyline, give this sleeper of a thriller a chance.

Many decry Hollywood remaking great European and Asian films nowadays, but they were doing it many years ago. This is a great example of the sickness of Hollywood. This film trashes everything that made the original unique and scary, and tacks on one of the most asinine, childish, unbelieveable happy endings I've ever seen.

This film should be thrown out into the nearest incinerator, it's that bad. They added a girlfriend for Keifer's character (the original film just concentrated on the boyfriend's obsession with his missing girlfriend), they make the normally brilliant Jeff Bridges speak with a strange accent and look greasy, and the ending (which is so different from the original) is disgustingly conventional, cheap, and stupid. Despite the fact that George Sluzier directed both the original and this remake, this remake sucks. Don't see it. See only the original.

This is one of those movies that keep you on the edge of your seat. Great actors and great acting. . .loved it!!

I'll start out by saying I have neither seen the Dutch film of which this is a remake or read the novel THE GOLDEN EGG that was the source material for both movies. From reading a little bit about the acclaimed Dutch film it sounds like the first half of the Hollywood version of THE VANISHING follows the original movie very closely but then the second half becomes more of a "by the numbers" Hollywood thriller with some action sequences and the requisite happy ending for the survivors.

I'm not giving any spoilers aways by saying Jeff Bridges plays the kidnapper, Barney, as we see him practicing how to snatch a woman in the opening scenes. Bridges looks the part of a Barney who on the surface is a likable if somewhat eccentric chemistry professor. For some reason the American Bridges plays the part with some type of European (I think) accent which is quite jarring when the script states Barney was born and raised in Seattle and at one point even shows his birth certificate. Kiefer Sutherland is quite good as Jeff whose life becomes an obsession filled mess after the disappearance of his girlfriend more because of a burning desire to find out what happened to her then pure devastation at her loss. Nancy Travis plays Rita, Jeff's new girlfriend, whom he meets "cute" by coming in exhausted from his search for the missing Diane to the all night diner where she works. Rita later displays amazing talents as a detective and strategist so apparently was way underemployed in her waitress gig. Sandra Bullock as the very pretty and sympathetic missing Diane is very adequate but does not have a lot of screen time.

The first half of the film creates Diane and Jeff as believable characters caught in a nightmare. The second half relies too much on coincidences to move the plot ahead and pop psychology as motives for the characters' actions. If you like thrillers this is an OK way to spend a couple of hours but it seems the potential promised at the film's beginning is not even close to being realize by the end.