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:

Carcajou: Pardon, you are a dead man.

A Vermont Western

This well-meant film falls just a bit short, and unfortunately in too many areas.

The scenery is gorgeous, with vistas of north-central Vermont providing the setting for this mid-century tale. Quebec Bill endeavors to go back to his whiskey-running past in order to save his farm.

Going back and forth between scenes of magical realism and straight-forward action, this film rarely hits its stride.

Kris Kristofferson as Quebec Bill seems pretty stilted, or else it's his lines; or else his cross of Yankee and Quebecois accents. Anyway, he just comes off as a low-key blow-hard. His dialogs with Gary Farmer's Coville character do sparkle, though. William Sanderson's Rat Kinneson is solid. Charlie McDermott shows some real potential as young Wild Bill; but his part's not large enough to carry a scene and he never steals one. Luis Guzman shows up on Lake Memphramagog (with a fine stand-in performance by Lake Willoughby) as a monk with a boys'n'the hood accent: who knows? And then there's Bujold's Cordelia: an oracle like her namesake, she channels Yoda as she intones lines like "You will marry a Quebec woman!"?!? Just too weird and nowhere near enigmatic enough.

The end gets really choppy. Again a bad mix of magical realism and the concrete. And Yoda never provides an answer we can understand.