Since I started watching 24 six years ago, Kiefer Sutherland has become one of my favorite actors. I knew that he was in a lot of movies before making the switch to television, but I guess I just didn’t realize how long his film resumé is. I remembered his roles in Stand By Me, The Lost Boys, Young Guns, and A Few Good Men, of course, but he’s been in A LOT of other movies as well, including 1993′s The Vanishing. I just watched The Vanishing the other day, and here’s what I thought of it.

Sutherland stars as Jeff Harriman, a man whose wife Diane (played by Sandra Bullock) is abducted from a gas station one night. We see early on who the culprit is — a strange man named Barney Cousins (Jeff Bridges) — and we see exactly what happens to Diane, so we know the film isn’t going to be a straight search-and-rescue mission.

What it is about is Jeff’s complete obsession with discovering the truth about Diane. The police are unable to find out anything about her disappearance, but Jeff isn’t satisfied with that answer. He moves on with time and meets another woman (Rita, played by Nancy Travis), but he’s always thinking about Diane and wondering. Even after three years, he remains obsessed with finding answers about his wife’s “vanishing.”

Then one day out of the blue Barney contacts Jeff and offers to tell him precisely what happened — on the condition that Jeff agree to go through the exact same thing she did. Of course he agrees, and the rest of the film then focuses on this story angle, with Jeff in Barney’s clutches and Rita racing against time to try to find him.

My Reaction: I heard that this is actually a remake of a Dutch (?) film and that the two versions have vastly different endings, with the original being far superior to the remake. I can believe that, as I found the ending of The Vanishing to be completely unsatisfactory. It didn’t ring true and made me feel as though I wasted my time watching the movie.

Up until the ending, I thought the movie was pretty decent. It had an intriguing premise and there were some interesting things going on. But the ending really ruined the whole experience for me, and totally colored my views on the film as a whole.

Overall, I give The Vanishing 2 stars out of 5. It’s not worth watching, especially if you’ve made it this long (14 years since its release) without seeing it!