It’s the details that matter in this richly textured, slow-paced thriller. It isn’t hard to guess that they’ll return, with fatal consequences. Although clearly suspicious of Thomas’ explanation that omits any mention of the trunk, they make their exit. Not long afterward, two of the dead man’s shipmates arrive and begin making inquiries. After killing the man in self-defense, the trio discovers that the trunk is filled with gold bars. Donald is given the task of descending a steep cliff to see if the victim is still alive, and is nearly drowned by the suddenly violent stranger for his troubles. But it’s when a man washes up on the shore, accompanied by a wooden trunk, that things truly take a turn for the worse. The ominous tone is established early on, via such foreboding scenes as when the men have to clean up the bodies of numerous dead seagulls after a ferocious storm. As the story begins, the men have just arrived on the remote island for a six-week shift that’s expected to be routine. The central characters are crusty widower Thomas (Mullan), affable family man James (Butler) and young apprentice Donald (Conner Swindell), the latter required to learn about such things as the dangers of the mercury used to lubricate the lighthouse machinery. It delivers a Treasure of the Sierra Madre-like scenario involving the discovery of a gold treasure that inevitably results in violent repercussions. Inspired by the real-life “Flannan Isle Mystery” in which three Scottish lighthouse keepers disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1900, this imagining of what might have happened is set in 1938. Nonetheless, the film proves highly effective with its slowly ratcheted up tension and eerie atmospherics. Boasting excellent performances by screen veterans Peter Mullan and Gerard Butler, the latter delivering one of his best turns in years, The Vanishing feels familiar in most ways, including its title (the same as George Sluizer’s classic Dutch thriller and its mediocre American remake). A perpetually mist-covered Scottish island provides the evocative setting for Kristoffer Nyholm’s claustrophobic period thriller.
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