This film manages to keep the viewer engrossed despite revealing the murderer almost immediately. You get some final pieces to the puzzle toward the end, but for the most part the mystery is diffused very early on. In doing so, the audience is meant to focus on the protagonist’s obsession with finding out why his lover vanished from a rest stop in broad daylight and the inner workings of the sociopath who kidnapped her. The film has been praised for its restructured approach to this type of thriller and for the absence of generic tropes (things like, I don’t know, creaky floorboards and headless horsemen). But frankly, I missed those cues and felt distinctly un-thrilled. There’s also something to be said about watching a thriller mid-afternoon with your aunt…
I hear the English remake is pretty bad.
