VANISHING ON 7TH STREET

Detroit is suddenly enveloped in darkness. A general blackout turns everything off, and the people who find themselves in the dark mysteriously disappear, leaving behind only a pile of clothes as evidence of their presence. A cinema projectionist, a nurse who lost her child, a television journalist, and a boy waiting for his mother find themselves in a bar on 7th Street, trying to survive the menacing shadows that lurk in the darkness and want to drag them into the shadows. The opening of "Vanishing on 7th Street" is mouthwatering, and the subject immediately shows some interesting points. You are immediately immersed in an atmosphere reminiscent of the iconic series "The Twilight Zone," the story quickly gets to the point, and that sense of mystery and suspense that already shines through in the synopsis is well conveyed by the lighting and the singular opening scene in the cinema. In short, as soon as you start watching "Vanishing on 7th Street," the rubbing of hands with a tip of the tongue libidinously and Fantozzianly at the edges of the lips is guaranteed. Then comes the perplexity, a scratch of the head, a yawn that is soon followed by another and another, until the certainty: every good premise/promise is lost along the way, and in the end, "Vanishing on 7th Street" is the flop we did not expect. We can say that director Brad Anderson has been showing signs of qualitative imbalance for some time because after the praiseworthy beginning with "Session 9" and the interesting continuation with "The Machinist," he has devoted himself full-time to TV with episodes for "Masters of Horror" ("Sounds and Fears" from the second season) and "Fear Itself" ("Phantoms")...episodes, by the way, among the least successful of the enjoyable anthology series they belong to. Before this return to cinema, there had only been another little-seen film, the thriller "Transsiberian." Perhaps the blame for the disappointing outcome (both qualitative and box office) of "Vanishing on 7th Street" is not only the director's, although a certain negligence in the direction of the actors and the management of the spaces can be noticed. The greatest demerit undoubtedly goes to the screenwriter Anthony Jaswinski ("Deadly Game") who, despite basing it on a very fascinating subject, fails to develop it properly. "Vanishing on 7th Street" is a film that practically goes nowhere, seen the first successful ten minutes in the cinema where the projectionist John Leguizamo wanders, you have practically seen the entire film. There is a lack of narrative evolution, there are no situations that develop the characters, there are no subplots...there is nothing! There are these four characters who for 90 minutes stay closed inside the Sonny's Bar and try not to turn off the lights. That's it. Just a few shadows that lengthen on the walls and some chilling sounds to remind us that there is a threat to the protagonists. It goes without saying that the film inevitably turns out to be boring due to the static nature and the absolute lack of emotional involvement. And this is also the fault of four poorly written characters and played with very little conviction. Of this handful of characters, we have basic information that only refers to their employment and the loved ones they lost due to the blackout, but a psychological development (and the situation would allow it!) is completely lacking, as well as any minimal facet. Only the worried mother played by the always excellent Thandie Newton ("Mission: Impossible 2"; "RocknRolla") shows greater care in her construction, with branches in her religious faith, but since she is not the main character, in the end, it doesn't matter. All the others are bad, from the usually good John Leguizamo ("Land of the Dead"; "E came un giorno") who here is at best evanescent, to the great punch in the eye of the film which is Hayden Christensen (the Darh Vader/Anakin Skywalker of the second trilogy of "Star Wars"), absolutely out of place in every scene. The general impression is that no one really believed in the film, neither the actors nor the director. Anderson, who is turning out to be a great unfulfilled promise after the excellent beginnings, directs in an anonymous and far too repetitive way a story that at least in one scene seems to want to pay homage to his beautiful "Session 9" (i.e., the scene of the tunnel, when the lights progressively turn off). Then, to be honest, the device of darkness as a threat is always fascinating, but in recent years, between "Darkness," "The Hollow," "They - Shadows from the Past," "Boogeyman," and in part "Silent Hill" (which this "Vanishing on 7th Street" reminds us of on more than one occasion) it has been overused by horror cinema. Nevertheless, a subtle sense of unease pervades the entire film, those mysterious shadows, perhaps the rancorous reflection of the living who have disappeared, work (at least initially) and in one occasion (in Church, towards the end) they even manage to make you jump in your seat. Unfortunately, it's all too thrown together, superficial, uninvolving, and boring. A film that will "vanish" from your memory very quickly. Rating rounded up for excess.