The film goes through its motions too quickly for its imagery to convey the irrepressible force of provocation.
The Vanishing seems truly troubled by its action violence in a way that many similar thrillers aren’t.
Director Anders Thomas Jensen’s empathy for his characters gradually impedes his imagination.
The film stages its claims through clunky dramaturgical scenarios, with the seams exposed at every turn.
The film plumbs enormous tension by resisting precisely the kind of sensationalism that seems to be the siren’s call for this kind of story.
Tobias Lindholm’s hostage-negotiation drama wields its verité
style for maximum tension.
The real world, or at least the attempt to transmit some finite aspect of it, has been the aim of many a film.
The film is as much a nail-biting thriller as an experiment in narrative dualism.