Capsule Reviews of Today’s AFI Film Fest

Following are capsule reviews of today’s screenings in the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas:

‘The Vanishing’

Netherlands, 1988, 107 minutes

6:30 p.m.

A contemporary psychological thriller that’s a real nail-biter: a clean, logical nightmare with a fantastically absorbing plot. Director George Sluizer understands the principle of Hitchcockian counterpoint; his film begins with an attractive young Dutch couple and tosses in a typical idea, the girl’s inexplicable disappearance and the frantic search for her. From there, an utterly plausible sense of pure evil is revealed in a third character: a mild-looking French teacher (brilliantly played by “Beatrice’s” Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) who is fascinated with crossing the barriers of human conduct. Donnadieu and the appalling, horrific climax will haunt your mind long after this film is over. RECOMMENDED.