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It's not that this American remake of the acclaimed French thriller is poorly made; the original film's director, George Sluizer, has been retained and the plot is a near-carbon copy. The problem is that The Vanishing (1993) has been far too Americanized, with an all-American hero (Kiefer Sutherland) from whom all the prickly edges have been removed, a female lead (Nancy Travis) who has been provided oodles of female empowerment, and a pat, upbeat finale that flies directly in the face of the original film's devastating, emotional wallop of a conclusion. Only Jeff Bridges emerges unscathed in one of his most shamefully underrated performances as the creepy, obsessive villain, totally convincing as a psychotic so out of touch with his own impulses that he seems to marvel at his own depravity from someplace outside of himself. His is the sole reason to watch this withered effort and that's not enough to bypass the chilling 1988 forerunner.