Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vNZW7NJFBc
Rating- R
Genre- Drama/Mystery
Warnings- Mature language/Mild sexual situations/Mention of sexual assault
This movie was one that I never intended on watching, because I've never heard of it being released until recently. I don't recall any commercials highlighting it on television or on the internet, so I could have gone the rest of my life never knowing about this movie.
Thanks to a friendly request however, I've finally discovered "The Vanishing of Sidney Hall" and watched it to see its appeal.
As of March 23, "Rotten Tomatoes" has shown critics rating this film a 9 percent out of a possible 100, whereas the audience reviews are vastly different, with 82 percent of audiences liking the movie. Based on one website alone, there is already vastly contrasting opinions about this film and I'd like to throw in my two cents and feel out my own perspective on it.
With that being said, did "The Vanishing of Sidney Hall" amaze me with its stellar storytelling or will it disappear from my mind in weeks to come?
Originally released on January 25, 2017 at the Sundance Film Festival, this film is about a young novelist named Sidney Hall (Logan Lerman) who claims success at an early age only to suddenly go missing. Through a non-linear series of events, the audience is given bits and pieces of Hall's life that all visually describe how he ends up disappearing off the face of the earth. The events reveal Hall's different stages in his life from when he is a teenager to a young adult, as well as the various characters that eventually helped drive himself away from society.
The plot synopsis sounds like a tale I'd be curious to learn more about since I've had dreams of being a novelist since I was in the 4th grade, so the writer in me wanted to know how Hall would get from point A to point B.
What makes someone want to give up the promise of fame and fortune?
This is a two hour long movie that can drag on at multiple points. The beginning was captivating with its camera work, and how the main character is introduced. That part strongly depicted what we could expect out of Hall and that this film would take on an artistic approach to its narrative. Although, as the story goes on, the more I felt myself wanting the film to wrap it up.
I think this mostly has to do with the pigmentation of the scenes, as nearly all of them give off this muddled, grey tone that to me represented Hall's seemingly dull existence and how it only gets worse as he gets older. The only scenes I think had brighter settings showed Hall's high points in his life.
From this, I can see the movie sets its tone properly to the tone of Hall, as he comes off pessimistic and outcasted from classmates and family members. The dull colors made me feel somber, and also wearier the more I looked at them which is a bit of a negative for me.
This strategy of having the audience relate to the character is sufficient, but for myself, I wasn't a big fan of Hall for most of the movie so I didn't have this sense of, "I'm so upset that Hall is dealing with this and I hope to watch him later succeed" but rather, "I'm so upset that I'm upset over Hall because he seems like a pain to deal with." In short, it was difficult for me to understand Hall's motivations for the things he proceeds to do throughout the duration of this film and it certainly didn't help me sympathize with him early on.
On a positive note, the later half of the movie fleshed out Hall more to which I eventually did end up feeling sorry for him after what he goes through in the movie. I suppose that's the point with non-linear films, right? At first you dislike the character, but by the end you get their reasoning for what they've done.
The ending nearly made me cry too, which was something I was not expecting when watching the first ten minutes of this. The first part can be a struggle to push through, especially if you're not used to storytelling where the scenes go back in time, but the second half is much stronger in regards to my investment.
Focusing more in depth on Hall, he came off as an unlikable character in the beginning because like I mentioned, I couldn't relate to his cynical point of view on things. Although a few of his ideologies are humorous such as believing prom is useless to attend because it's only to worship popular students, there is so much pessimism you could grow exhausted from the amount of negativity. This is not to say that he doesn't have a reason to feel this way, but I guess I'm not a fan of negative people taking the spotlight for the entire movie.
Being around people who are negative-minded can really take a toll on your own thinking and to have a main character like that without an inch of positivity in the first five to ten minutes isn't appealing. However, Hall improves once his love interest, Melody (Elle Fanning) enters his life. This inclusion of Melody makes Hall shine in that it reveals that aside from writing, he has a passion for something that makes him happy and it's pleasant to watch.
Melody is a major component to the movie and was good to watch as well. At first, I thought she'd be a typical love interest who is only there because movies always need romance and she'd just be there talking to Hall like, "I'll support you through anything because I love you," but she had a unique personality with good and bad qualities that actually play a significant role in the rest of the film. Her relationship with Hall is awkward, but it's normal to be awkward when they're in high school. As their lives progress, their emotional connection is much more mature, but also complicated.
A complaint I have about Melody is not necessarily about her character, but more about her backstory. Throughout the movie, I've never seen any of her family members despite them being mentioned a few times. It's evident that she lives with her parents given the few pieces of dialogue that mentions them, so I wondered where were they as their daughter was dating Hall? Where were they as she became a grown adult? It didn't seem like Melody had an estranged relationship with them, and even though she's only a side character, it would be helpful to see her family at least once and how they'd interact with Hall.
There's also another side character called Brett Newport (Blake Jenner) who I had an issue with in regards to his involvement in the story. He is also a imperative person in Hall's life that changes who Hall is as a person, but by the end of the movie I didn't quite like the fact that he was so important to the story. His character just doesn't seem to connect with what the movie told me about him, because we're supposed to sympathize with this character, yet his backstory doesn't fit to what we see on screen.
Unlike gaining a better understanding of Hall's motivations, I got more confused about Newport's motivations because he appears as this athletic jock who bullies people, but also has a tragic background. It's common for tragedy to occur to those who bully others because that's their way of venting out their anger, but I couldn't picture Newport going through what the movie addresses that he went through. Before the present day events of the film, Newport asks Hall to basically protect him by doing him a favor and yet in the future he still makes fun of Hall.
How does that even make sense?
I could get if it was, "Hey, help me get an A on a quiz," but with the situation Newport was dealing with, I don't see the point in asking someone to help your behind if you're just going to be a jerk to them again. While this bullying doesn't seem incredibly apparent between Newport and Hall on screen, Hall comments that Newport has never liked him and picks on him a lot.
If I was Newport, I would treat the person who helped me with the upmost respect, because if I'm mean to them again, they could reverse their kindness and betray my trust by undoing the help they gave beforehand.
Also, at the end of the movie I got this feeling that Newport was not only a factor in Hall's disappearance, but the main factor. Why is this character so important to Hall?
I mean- I know why- but it rubs me off the wrong way that someone inconsistent with their behavior is the starting point for the series of events that follows Hall's path.
Did I enjoy this movie? ...Sometimes I did.
This was not a horrible movie at all; there was a lot of talent expressed through the acting that I got choked up at the end. Some of the characters themselves aren't my cup of tea though. Plus, with a two hour long movie it can drag on a lot and you can get confused if you look away for a while, so this is something to really pay attention to.
I think that critic scoring on "Rotten Tomatoes" is really harsh, since I don't find this movie to be unbearable. If I was forced to watch this again, I wouldn't complain, but if I had the choice to watch it again I'd probably skip out on it- mainly because of the duration. Otherwise, I'd recommend it if you have some time on your hands to get invested in this mystery about a peculiar young man.
I give "The Vanishing of Sidney Hall" a 3 out of 5 stars.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
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That was an interesting choice to only focus the imagery in a circle during the beginning of the movie. I don't think I've seen that before.
You masturbated to the little girl within? Isn't that pedophilia, and you're reading this in class? What is the motivation behind reading this? Is this about a girl in Sidney's class?
Is reading an erotic story in class worth failing class? For me, no.
Again, what is the motivation behind writing these odd stories? I've written a few weird stories myself, but not with the purpose of trying to publish them in school. What did Sidney think was going to happen when he tried to publish mature stories? It feels like they're trying to make Sidney too weird just for the sake of it.
"Takes out books that are unreal" Why describe what kinds of books the bearded guy burned? The point is he burned books, does it matter if they're subjectively unreal?
Did Sidney steal this bearded guy's story ideas?
Put the jock's jacket on Sidney's body and he could be one of those popular bullies. I don't see Sidney being this outcast appearance wise, wait a minute though. A lot of times people could look like they're the popular kid when they're not, so don't judge by appearances. They don't matter.
Is Sidney a playboy, just sleeping with lots of women?
It was cute how he went to the English teacher for help about deciphering the letter.
Is the secret admirer's name Melody or Melanie?
Maybe it was not a good idea to reveal the secret admirer first before Sidney went off searching for her. It would have added more mystery.
Is the girl Sidney sleeps with at the party the same actress from the Netflix Death Note movie? *Looks it up* She is!
Did Sidney say, "Sort of married"? Is he cheating on Melody?
Is the bearded man actually Sidney, and the vanishing is just his mind falling apart?
Was Melody wearing the exact same outfit when putting in another letter in Sidney's mailbox?
Maybe the jock (Brett) is a spirit and Sidney is doing all of this by himself?
"When am I going to climax?" Proof that Sidney has never felt alive.
The jock killed himself? Well, that's surprising.
I get it now, Sidney wrote the book about the jock's death and he probably regrets it!
From what I've seen from the mother, this outburst seems to come out of nowhere and makes her look absolutely insane! She even caused her son's injury which is likely the reason he has seizures.
The side-by-side of Melody and the mother's arguments with Sidney reveals his dysfunction with women.
So the jock's father was raping him as a kid? No, he raped a little girl...which was the sister of the jock? Where is this coming from?! I only saw the sister once in this 2 hour movie and there was no hint of this!
I almost thought the mom was the little girl that the jock's father raped in the video.
I don't like to curse a lot on this blog, but so many curse words pop up when I think of Sidney's mom. She caused the death of her son, his wife (because maybe without the injury, Sidney wouldn't have cheated), and the jock. This really shows her immaturity, and she should've grown the hell up. Teenagers talk crap about the parents often, and they know it's a way of venting so that's why it's in a freaking private journal!
Melody died? So is this the reality of what happened with her leaving Sidney instead of her walking away from the relationship? Now that I think about it, Melody did leave him but then she found out she was pregnant, they got back together, she found out he was cheating, and then she died. Got it.
I get that what Sidney did was wrong, but I wouldn't wish for his wife to die in front of him like that. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Well...
I'm assuming Sidney died at the end because it looked like Melody was sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, symbolizing him being in Heaven. I'm also curious about what was up with the father; I think it was mentioned that the mom left him. What happened after that? Also, what about the jock's sister who was being sexually assaulted by her father? If the jock died, then I'm so sure she would've killed herself too. I guess since the father is in high power, she has to keep quiet. That's sad.
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