Disappearances (2006)

Director:

Jay Craven

Writers:

Jay Craven (written by)
Howard Frank Mosher (novel)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama

Tagline:

In a desperate attempt to save their farm, a father and son embark on a whiskey running adventure.

Plot:

Quebec Bill Bohomme is a hardy schemer and dreamer, who, desperate to raise money to preserve his endangered...

Plot Keywords:

Whiskey | Returned From The Dead | Omen | Rain Machine | Depression Of 1929

Cast

Kris Kristofferson	...	Quebec Bill Bonhomme
Charlie McDermott	...	Wild Bill Bonhomme
Gary Farmer	...	Herny Coville
William Sanderson	...	Rat Kinneson
Geneviève Bujold	...	Cordelia (as Genevieve Bujold)
Lothaire Bluteau	...	Carcajou
Heather Rae	...	Evangeline Bonhomme
Bill Raymond	...	Compton
Luis Guzmán	...	Brother St. Hilaire (as Luis Guzman)
John Griesemer	...	Brother St. Paul
Christy Scott Cashman	...	Yellow Rose
Rusty De Wees	...	Frog Lamundy (as Rusty Dewees)
Steve Small	...	Origene LaChance
Josh Pellerin	...	Andre LaChance
Munson Hicks	...	Sheriff

Runtime:

USA:118 min (Los Angeles Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Lincoln, New Hampshire, USA

Company:

Border Run Pictures

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Between 9 and ten minutes into the film (as Coville is asking the other 2 men if they want to purchase a 'fast car'), if you look in the background, you can see modern day vehicles going down the street - despite the film being set in the early 1930s.

Quotes:

Quebec Bill: What's the matter, Hen'? Don't you think that I and Wild Bill can get that whiskey back across for ya?
Herny Coville: Bill, I'm sure you can hustle that whiskey up the lake with the Women's Temperance League patrollin' it.
Quebec Bill: And sell 'em a case in the bargain.

Disappearances worth sticking around for

What a delight! In a market where we excuse bad scripts and flat characters for a dozen more explosions, dazzling special effects, and everything else twenty million dollars can buy, I love Disappearances for its charm, its clever script handled by a well-appointed cast, and its beautiful photography.

The movie is thoroughly rural. Like the countryside where it was produced, it unfolds itself slowly but magnificently. Do not expect to find your heart in your throat for two hours, followed by a climactic and tidy resolution to the cosmos. Disappearances tells a story of father and son, and it is rightly more of a process than a particular event. In that regard, the plot development is stylistically more similar to eastern European cinema than it is to its American peers.

With only a couple hitches (some characters are more prop than talent), Disappearances' strong symbiosis of script and talent is the film's greatest offering. The superb synergy of Farmer and McDermott with the others, the perfect casting of Sanderson to character, and a good performance by Kristofferson, have me pinching myself at times to remember these people aren't actually family. Disappearances ventures further, or more believably, into the psychology of its main characters than many American films dare go.

That Jay Craven was ambitious with his budget shows at times during Disappearances, but it becomes more of a mark of honor than a detractor. This film is the antithesis to the contemporary action blockbuster. The film moves slowly at times, and the action is not always plausible, but the characters are for the most part enchanting. Besides, our suspension of disbelief in the cinema is an aesthetic choice above all, and I appreciate the way Disappearances, in its fusion of magic realism and frontier, challenges me to look at movies anew.