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“The Vanishing” clearly answers the rhetorical question posed by “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (“Who will survive and what will be left of them?”). No one and very little, to be sure. Such is the true story of the Flannan Isle Mystery, which involves three lighthouse keepers who went missing from a Scottish isle in 1900. Gerard Butler produced the film and plays one of the men in question, allowing him to flex emotional muscles that he does not get to exercise in his larger, louder projects. Despite its overall noble dramatic intent, particularly from Butler, the film fails to leave an impression.
Peter Mullan, who plays the privately broken grandfatherly leader Thomas, and Connor Swindells’ young and naive Donald join Butler’s burly family man James. The three are on the isle five minutes into the film, with Nyholm’s editing having its own workmanlike idea while capturing the mundane goings-on of their duties, setting the stage for… something. The title’s and opening text’s question becomes entangled with odd plot points from Joe Bone and Celyn Jones’ script: a dead flock of seagulls, an ominous shot at night from on the water, as if a fourth point-of-view. As “The Vanishing” progresses, the film’s hints of horror prove to be a strange but too slow series of events. Also, you must try to play this The Vanishing movie quiz.
The Vanishing Movie quiz
In the end, director Kristoffer Nyholm’s film wonders aloud whether the three men were consumed by forces more immediate, and if done correctly, more thrilling, than eight-eyed sea monsters or alien kidnappers. It transforms the true story into a nightmare, with greed leading to death and death leading to madness. Then there’s a random dead body, a trunk with gold in it, and two more men appear, both with villainous scowls, inquiring about what happened to both. “The Vanishing” pummels its characters and their spirits as everyone fights for what they want in such a remote location. And, because the film is as concerned with brutality as it is with consequences, they are all haunted by their ability to kill.
Nyholm, who has recently worked on FX’s “Taboo” and BBC’s “The Killing,” takes a hit-or-miss visceral approach to this bare-bones tale, employing handheld cameras and performance-soaking close-ups during its many moments of the men speaking in hushed tones, as if they’re afraid the rest of the world will hear them. Surprising intimacy emerges from the violence in particular: the men frequently face each other before fighting, a type of bonding moment, even if one intends to kill the other. Despite the world’s clear frigidity and the wrinkles cut into Mullan’s forehead, the story’s drab atmosphere and thorough desperation for austerity lead to a lack of texture. Add a score by Benjamin Wallfisch, which can be obtrusive at times and tonally misleading at others, and the film, despite its stoicism, begins to run bland.
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In light of such machismo, the three lead performances do give the impression that the film is best suited as a musing on death. Mullan’s voice, like a rock avalanche, has moments when he monologues to the unseen ghosts of his loved ones, moments that struggle to achieve the grandiose pain they’re clearly meant to achieve. Swindell’s Donald, on the other hand, creates significantly less intrigue by serving as a sort of surrogate for the saga, displaying a lost innocence.
Butler is the muscle of the group for the first half of the film, in the unusual position of the background, making him a particular curiosity. All of that changes when his character, James, does something unspeakable, which becomes his express ticket to the film’s flat path to hysteria. Butler attempts to capture the horror of grief, but his stunning fragility and later monstrous nature come across as matter-of-fact rather than nuanced. His efforts end up capturing the film’s spirit, which is hollow and self-serious, mistaking rawness for revelation.
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