Review of Vanishing on 7th Street (2010) by Edward B — 18 Mar 2011

There is a great movie buried somewhere in Vanishing on 7th Street. But the story resorts instead to cliche characters reacting to cliche situations. If you've ever seen a movie where a man wakes up to a completely abandoned city after a massive catastrophe, you can pretty much predict how the story will unfold.

Hayden Christensen plays the anti-hero, a man with a troubled past looking for redemption. Thandie Newton plays the grieving mother. And John Leguizamo plays the man who's only purpose is to briefly explain to the audience what is going on. None of these characters are particularly smart, and will do many things that will have you rolling your eyes.

Director Brad Anderson takes a major step back here. He's never been a director that has been able to revive or reinvent genres, but he's given us some interesting genre fair with Session 9, The Machinist, and Transsiberian. Here, he doesn't have a grip on the material, and his movie seems like it was plagued with problems in the production, from the uninspired sets, poor lighting, narrative twists that are never fully explained, and a rushed ending. We've all seen this before. A cool concept ruined by a bad movie.