Purely Joyful Movie!

Excellent but underrated film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I found this film at a Redbox location, on a busy night when most other horror films were already taken. Only having the cover art to look at, I thought it looked like an interesting concept. What I didn't know is that this movie was made in Australia and not the US or UK. Having seen a few decent Aussie movies (The Tunnel Movie, Storm Warning, Red Hill), I have become accustomed to the greater length of time films made there take to develop their plots. U.S. made movies tend to reward the instant gratification expectations of their audiences, so learning a degree of patience with Australian made movies is helpful.We start out looking at two similar sets of characters, both parents of a young child. The director skillfully takes us back and forth between them, slowly revealing the common thread that ties them together. What we learn is that a mother loses her young son to kidnappers, then loses her husband in the stressful weeks that follow in their hopes for their son's safe return. What remains is literally a person with nothing left to lose, so she methodically seeks out the identity of her son's kidnapper. She is brought together with the other couple of a young child through not only the help of an innocent looking elderly couple, but with some shady looking enforcer types who intimidate and injure the second couple. We find out that the mother in the second couple is the kidnapper of the child of the first couple, and then an intense psychological battle ensues. All of the what has been previously described works beautifully when you are sitting in the audience, and kudos to the director for carefully laying out the pieces to the puzzle. But once both of the mothers remain as the dominant characters, the script unfortunately falls apart. Caterina, the mother of the kidnapped and subsequently murdered child, repeatedly asks Winona, the kidnapper and murder, for an explanation of why her son had to be the one taken. While there are many directions a decent screenwriter could have gone here, the one that was unfortunately chosen was Winona's explanation of an everpresent demon who forced her, and dozens of seemingly normal women through past generations, suddenly flip and murder their families.So after all the intensity and desire for revenge, we in the audience are finally given the explanation for Winona's heinous crime: The devil made me do it. A big disappointment, to say the least. The movie correctly errs on the side of caution in its denouement, punishing both Caterina and Winona, but leaving the two remaining innocents, Winona's husband and daughter, unharmed. But what a waste of a promising idea, which successfully draws the audience in until the final scenes.

Mmm-hmm, well "Vanished" had potential, and it did start out as really interesting. There was a good amount of appeal to the movie, and it was good at building up suspense and a sense of thrill. But ultimately it all crashed down towards the last fourth of the movie. Wow, what just went wrong here. What was the director and screen writing thinking?The part leading up to the kidnapping and the part with searching for the missing child, and the pleading through the media was actually quite good. But then the movie took a turn for the worse! I am not going to go into details, as it has to be seen to be believed. I was so annoyed with the turn of events that my attention started to drift off to my phone. The movie went from rather enjoyable to sewage in a matter of minutes.I will say that the acting in the movie was actually quiet good for a movie of this caliber. I don't recall having seen anyone in the movie prior to this one, so it was a nice fresh touch with unfamiliar faces.If you enjoy thrillers, then you might find enjoyment in this movie - just as I did in the first three quarters of the entire movie. There are some great moments and aspects to "Vanished". Just be warned, that the movie does take a rather radical turn of events towards the last quarter of the movie.

I hate ratings. It is so unfair that someone with no interest in the subject matter can give any movie one star. And I am one of those people. I do not like American movies, and like Hollywood movies even less. They are just dumbed down BS from start to finish as far as I am concerned. So rather than give them all one star, I abstain from voting. No one gets hurt.So it is with Vanished. I thinks that it is a very well crafted and produced little movie. Anyone that cannot follow the plot should have a second look. I thought for a first time writer /director it was a fine effort. All of the actors are new to me and did their bit admirably. Definitely worth a watch if you like a good who-dunnit movie.

It is hard to say why this movie is so bad without giving spoilers. It is a low budget Australian movie, and it is written and directed by same guy,and he is the main problem.His direction isn't real bad but his writing is. The writing ranges from bizarre to just plain stupid.Spoilers: In one part the woman is working at a college, because she figured out the abductor of her son worked there or went to school there. this was stupid and bizarre in itself, the way she figures this out. Then after she meets a bunch of people for I don't know how long, maybe years,She talks to one woman once and says she just knew it was her! Talks to her one time and she just knows. after that she proceeds to stalk (for a long time, at this point I do not believe the woman had had a kid yet)and plan to kidnap this woman's child, just to actually get the woman to come to her.She will then threaten to kill her kid unless she admits what she did. With the screenplay as it is no filmmaker could make this a good movie.