Review of Disappearance

This movie was suspenseful and intriguing with some good scares! It kept up my attention at all times - until the last five minutes. The ending was a disappointment. It was only strange - or rather: it would not necessarily have been a bad ending, if all the questions had been answered. I think the movie-makers make it too easy for themselves, when they throw in a lot of interesting clues and suggestions... but in the end they do not have to explain anything, not make the story come together.

I like it that the family was a step family with a "borrowed kid" (a friend of one of the kids in the family). Because most movies of this kind are about nuclear families. I think step families, which are so common nowadays after all, also need "movie families" to identify with. But it would have been even more efficient if the "borrowed kid" had been the stepmother's biological son instead of just a friend of the family. Because then the movie could have addressed such issues as loyalty, responsibility and sacrifice in a step family in extreme situations.

I mean this scenario for instance: the stepmother's only biological child is lost in the desert. She naturally wants to go and look for him, but her husband and his kids want to flee while there is still time. What happens then..?