It's a terrifying thought, having a loved one vanish without a trace. One moment you're together, and then you're not. You turn your head for just a second and she's gone. Panic sets in; you check everywhere, question everyone, go over every detail until your head hurts and still nothing makes sense. You feel nauseous and frustrated and then the fear settles in. It's getting dark-- now what do you do? File a missing person's report that eventually leads nowhere. Your significant other is reduced to a mere statistic. You wait and wait for closure, but it never comes. Three agonizing years pass. It is now an obsession, an obsession that consumes your entire life. There is no evidence, no pattern and no body. Your life is put on hold until you find the answer. The task seems daunting in that only by shear luck will you ever know the truth. Then one day your persistence pays off and you stumble upon a stranger, a stranger who knows something. Is he the murderer or just a lunatic? Do you take the chance? Is the risk worth knowing the truth? This unnerving dilemma besets the protagonist Rex in George Sluizer's 1988 cinematic masterpiece The Vanishing. What I found most intriguing and refreshing about this film was the seemingly benign approach it creates allowing the terror to build gradually. The central characters, a Dutch couple Rex and his girlfriend Saskia, are average looking and behave in unspectacular fashion, laughing, arguing as most couples do. They are traveling to France for a vacation.<br /><br />The opening scenes establish the happy couple; an ominous turn ensues when they stop at a gas station and Saskia disappears. As Rex searches for her in panic, he learns that she was last seen leaving with another man. Three years pass and Rex is still searching. His obsession consumes him, sabotaging his relationship with another woman. Then everything switches gears, with the entire second half of the film focusing on Raymond Lemorne, the kidnapper. It seems an odd technique to use (showing the villain throughout) but it works extremely well as we examine his perspective. It is here that The Vanishing establishes itself as a thriller that will be unlike all the rest, as Raymond is presented as a frightening but complex villain. A successful teacher with a loving wife and two daughters, strange only in his dullness, his monstrous desires are nourished by the fact that he sees himself as a resident above suspicion and therefore undetectable. He's a chameleon, an everyday man, who looks like the guy next door. This is what makes this film so effective and disturbing. Here is a culprit who blends in so well he can never be caught. He is very intelligent, yet imperfect. There are scenes in this movie both comic and unsettling at the same time. We observe as Raymond acts out his kidnapping scheme, and then pitifully attempts to bait young women into his car without any luck. His plan constantly fails until he meets Saskia.<br /><br />At first this film does not portray itself as suspenseful, but develops tension so calmly that by the time it is over, you're left exhausted. George Sluizer's genius direction comes from the idea of playing with the audience's nerves, letting anxiety build as we learn what ultimately happened to Saskia. Yet when the reality sets in, and the truth is revealed we almost wish the movie hadn't told us, just like Rex, who had his life destroyed by Saskia's unsolved vanishing, comes to the realization that maybe he would have been better off not knowing either. Similar to the pieces of a puzzle, the story gradually connects. It stays riveting from start to finish, psychologically absorbing the whole audience. When Raymond offers a chance for Rex to see Saskia again, he must first experience what she went through, and you're left wondering "Where the hell is this going to take us next?" The movie moves so subtly towards its shocking conclusion, that when it comes, we believe it. Unlike the usual "conventional" twist ending, The Vanishing pulls off the extremely complex act of seeming both shocking and inevitable, leaving you with a finale that will genuinely leave you numb for days.<br /><br />-Myles