The Vanishing

In directing this misjudged, compromised Hollywood remake of his Dutch-French thriller, Sluizer has held down his waywardly inspired child while studio and scriptwriter Todd Graff have lobotomised it with a sharp, cruel scalpel. Worse, by replacing cerebral dread with knee-jerk reaction, this depressing travesty taints forever our memory of the devastating original. Shifting emphasis from Sutherland's impotent obsession with his missing girlfriend to abductor Bridges' coldly calculating psychopathology, the film-makers pander to the lowest common denominator - beefing up Bridges' misconceived role as the villain and transforming Sutherland into an active, albeit perversely motivated hero.