
In the eyes of those who have caught the film, the viewing is nothing but a lifetime bad movie, which could not have been compensated with a good marketing campaign. One of the highlights is the cinematography that captures the working scenes on Italian villas, small towns, and the coast. No shortage of eye candy with all lead actors being incredibly attractive and captivating. And yet, the story is made extremely monotonous with a plot that is neater than tissue paper, and a screenplay that is high up in the shallow end of Trevi Fountain.
And there are no characters worth writing off or any character themes explored, no subtext or themes barely explored, and a missing second act. Directors Steven Soderbergh and Anton Corbijn can be forgiven for their weaker works, because, at the very least, there’s that type of developed art in Netflix’s Vanished Into the Night. Where do people get the gall to recommend this? Would sane a person want horror, suspense or even action sub-genre-focused viewers to watch this trash? They make circles around silliness and total destruction taking your time and sanity in the same breath.
Similar points can be made about the Italian Netflix thriller which had some promising stars considering how poor the development of the final product was and it seems hateful for the actors themselves to have been in this half-baked film. The cast for the movie includes John Wick: Chapter 2 star Riccardo Scamarcio and Annabelle Wallace of Malignant into the film directed by Renato De Maria- Robbing Mussolini.
Wallis portrays Elena, an American psychotherapist who quit her professional practice in order to help her husband Peter Scamarcio open a bed and breakfast in the warm Italian coastal area of his dreams. however, the house they bought when, among other things, they invested mostly with Elena’s money, is a financial disaster.
But Elena is not exactly pristine either; as her husband’s attorney points out, she has been a chronic opioid addict for many years, which made their husband and father the main parent. Yes, it is enough to say that this marriage appears to be beyond hope.
However, during heated mediation for the divorce resolution, it is Petr who has to take care of the children this week while Elena goes back to the States. His son, Giovanni, experiences night terrors and fears the shapes made by tree limbs are monsters. Pietro calms him down and puts him to sleep, so now his teenage daughter Bianca is the only one who is awake.
As the door closes behind him, he takes a sip from his drink and zonks out watching the football match. Hours later, he comes to realize that his children are no longer in their room. When Elena gets back, she attacks Pietro and they are contacted by the kidnappers who ask for 150,000 euros as ransom for Pete and Cassie. It means he has to return to his childhood friend time (Massimiliano Gallo), and his illegal hunts to try and get hold of the cash needed to get the kids out.
According to De Maria, she wants the audience to feel tension and suspense, especially regarding how far these characters will go, in particular, Pietro, to see to it that their children come back safe and sound. The concern however, is that there is not much suspense that is derived because it is in fact fairly obvious who the villain in the story is and from the beginning, and he is the only one with any real motivation.
The few non-issues like a few childhood friends gone bad or the mobsters looking for their money are simply distractions. The character decisions need to be more explicit like one takes over the kids’ parents’ heads when their kids disappear from the house for hours without even thinking of calling the cops. Not to mention this lack of clarity persists when another character is asked about the reason this was not done and the reply is, ‘You ordered me to wait and not do anything.’
Then, there is the problem of the second act there is none. There is one such compilation, and once you become aware of it, you know who the real villain is. Pietro doesn’t go through any tension or complexity of the plot development of the conflict or even a turning point. Quite simply, it is an elongated version of the first act that doesn’t even travail to cover the plot because it is so blindingly obvious.
The story’s ending scenes in Vanished into the Night are so straightforward and clean-cut that they are even insulting to the audience in the opinion of some critics. Unfortunately, the twist is very traditional and, not to say boring, quite the contrary to what the unsettling and strange world of cinema is all about and what fans wish for. The narrative is sustained however, it fails to evoke feelings and tension that would guarantee a mesmerizing and overwhelming experience for the audience.
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