Synopsis
Three lighthouse keepers on an uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland discover something that isn't theirs to keep.
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Cast
- Gerard ButlerJames
- Peter MullanThomas
- Connor SwindellsDonald
- Søren MallingLocke
- Ólafur Darri ÓlafssonBoor
- Gary LewisKenny
- Emma KingMary
- Ken DruryDuncan
- Gary KaneGherd
- Roderick GilkisonGalley Hand
Recommendations
- 80
New York Magazine (Vulture)
The movie is phenomenally well made and the three actors who fall apart on our watch suffer magnificently. - 75
Slant Magazine
The Vanishing seems truly troubled by its action violence in a way that many similar thrillers aren’t. - 75
Movie Nation
The Vanishing manages to shock even as it fails to truly surprise, a movie that takes a worn situation and wrings fresh pain out of it as it reaches — over-reaches — to solve a mystery that is probably even more mysterious than whatever the screenwriter’s cooked up. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Mullan brings edginess and gravitas to the kind of role he’s played dozens of times. Butler, though, is a pleasant surprise, departing from his usual one-dimensional action heroes to play a dramatic part — and so well that one wonders why he doesn’t do it more often. - 70
The New York Times
While Jorgen Johansson’s windswept photography creates a credible sense of isolation (he filmed in part at the Mull of Galloway lighthouse), we sense the ominous rhythms of impending calamity. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Boasting excellent performances by screen veterans Peter Mullan and Gerard Butler, the latter delivering one of his best turns in years, The Vanishing feels familiar in most ways, including its title (the same as George Sluizer's classic Dutch thriller and its mediocre American remake). Nonetheless, the film proves highly effective with its slowly ratcheted up tension and eerie atmospherics. - 60
The Guardian
It’s a very powerfully performed, intimate piece, perhaps inspired at some level by the classic adventure The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Mullan is very good at suggesting the careworn wisdom of someone who has to be a father figure, or even grandfather figure to men who don’t have his skill in self-control and self-denial. - 60
The Telegraph
The Vanishing makes an unmistakable effort, but also feels like one, and fades almost fittingly from the imagination within hours of seeing it.
