Starring: Harry Treadaway, Greg Wise, Tom Felton, Ros Leeming
Directed By: Johnny Kevorkian
Written By: Neil Murphy, Johnny Kevorkian
Grade: B+

The Disappeared is a story of ghosts and regret where nothing is as it seems. It is really more of a suspenseful drama than a horror movie, but through the slow moving, character-driven film we are able to get inside of the main character’s head who is being haunted and becomes desperate to find out the truth. It’s another rare case of a ghost story done right, because it isn’t about trying to get the audience to jump with an image or high pitched sound. The Disappeared creates authentic suspense through a personal and frightening story.

Matthew (Treadaway) arrives back at his flat in London with his father after being treated in a mental help facility. His younger brother, Tom, disappeared when he was supposed to be watching him and no one has seen him since. Matthew’s guilt was building up and everyone around him assumed he was crazy. Now he is home and he doesn’t ever plan on going back there again. Still, Tom’s case isn’t solved and he cannot rest until he knows what really happened. The more questions he asks the more angered his father gets, making him question if he is responsible for Tom’s death. Gangs swarm the town, terrorizing anyone younger or weaker than them. They even claim a local playground for themselves, targeting young children who are defenseless against these gang members. Could they have gotten carried away when messing with Tom?

Soon Matthew begins to hear Tom’s voice and sees him. He doesn’t know how to react to this, but as he doesn’t seem to be going away he realizes that he has to find a way to help him. After meeting his new neighbor, Amy (Leeming), he learns that there might be someone who can give him some answers. There is a psychic in the area who Amy claims is just misunderstood. Matthew is hesitant, but he is desperate to find out the truth. After seeing her, he stops trying to convince everyone around him of his communication with Tom since clearly no one believes him, not even his best friend, Simon (Felton). He follows Tom’s image, but the answer is in such an unlikely place, it might be right in front of him but he just isn’t able to identify it. As Simon’s little sister has gone missing too, his brother’s life might not be the only one at stake.

Henry Treadaway does very well as Matthew. He is scared and lonely, but very determined. Treadaway embodies Matthew’s overwhelming remorse, yet lets us feel for him and trust him completely. Especially as the tension heightens Treadaway’s performance escalates. Greg Wise is very cold and withdrawn as the alcoholic father who blames Matthew constantly for what happen and quite clearly resents him for it. As soon as his son is going through something he sends him away so he won’t be his problem anymore. He would rather condemn his son than actually listen to him.

Tom Felton, most well known as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, does very well as Simon, Matthew’s skeptical friend. At first I didn’t even recognize him and although it was just a supporting role this film was a great move for him to be involved in meaningful material outside of the Harry Potter world just like many of the actors from the films are doing. Simon shows a tough exterior, but as his friend is in trouble and his sister is gone, he shows how vulnerable he is. He is scared, but can’t ignore his intuition telling him things will only get worse if he ignores his gut feeling. Ros Leeming also did very well as Matthew’s friend and potential love interest, Amy. Her home life is just as bad as Matthew’s if not worse. She’s been through a lot, but she is still the one person who Matthew can really trust. She is kind, understanding, and believes Matthew when he tells her about hearing Tom’s voice and seeing him. She tries to help him rather than judge him to find his answers and to live a little along the way.

The setting for the film is dark and creepy itself. Everywhere around seems to be danger. Matthew soon fears his own safety at home as his father turns on him and is wanting to get rid of him. Amy is constantly in danger of her father as he shows his annoyance in a more physical way. Brutal gangs are all around and constantly threatening just about anyone who wanders towards them. The woods are dark and ominous as well as the decaying underground hideaway we eventually come to that are completely frightening, not knowing what kind of horrors could be revealed here.

We are dealing with dysfunctional families and characters who are going through so much. The Disappeared is a very slow moving movie, but through this we get great examination of the characters. Matthew wants to get back to his life, but heads in a downward spiral that many label as insanity. Knowing that there is hardly anyone there for him just makes it harder as he knows he might have to take on his brother’s killer by himself. The father is developed the least, but we see the pain and anger within him. He is simply in such a dark place that he is far too afraid to reveal it to anyone else, especially the son he puts the blame for this on. Even the gang members show dysfunction as violence is their only answer. They have lost their grip on reality and live in a much more sinister place now.

Voices, images, and nightmares foreshadow what is going to happen brilliantly without taking the suspense away, but it is really the end of the movie when the horror elements come in. Even then it is very tame horror, more through the events we know have taken place than what we actually see. There is only one death shown on screen and not much of the actual killing is shown. The only blood we see are drops that are shown on the ground. I think a little more gore could have escalated the tension, but it doesn’t take much away as this is more of a personal piece reflective of the characters and not as much about the killing itself. The ending is a great turn of events, especially since we are questioning everyone around Matthew, but it ends up being the last person you expect. The killer’s identity really speaks to the fact that even those who have the reputation for being the most pure, kind, and good, can be the most deceptive, possibly committing further evils than anyone’s mind can fathom. It is their very reputation that allows them to go on killing as no one would ever suspect them.

Starring: Cindy Cheung, Michael Chen, Crystal Chiu
Written & Directed By: Tze Chun
Grade: B

Tze Chun’s micro-budget film, Children of Invention, debuted at Sundance and is now showing at the Cleveland International Film Festival. You barely notice it is low budget as it feels both very natural and striking. Tze Chun based the film on his personal experiences growing up, which explains the overwhelming truth that is shown through every character.

Children of Invention follows Elaine Cheung (Cheung), a single mom who immigrated from Hong Kong with her husband years ago. After having two kids with this man, Raymond (Chen) and Tina (Chiu), he left them and went back to Hong Kong. He’s very sporadic with his child support so Elaine is on her own. Things have recently gotten much worse since their house had been foreclosed on. Now they are living in a model home since they can’t afford to pay rent anywhere. They can barely afford to eat. Elaine is always working a handful of odd jobs since she is not an American citizen and is limited in what she can do. She hasn’t been able to get any work that pays her nearly enough to take care of her family. Elaine has been involved in plenty of non-risk get rich quick schemes. However, she comes across one that might be more risky. She answers an ad for what she assumes is a legitimate company. She gets a call back and attends a company party where she learns more about the company. They want her to be a principle salesman focusing on the Chinese population. However, it costs $2,500 to be a member, which is required to work in the program. Elaine tries to get a loan or for her husband to send some money, but after awhile the company agrees to waive the membership fee for now if she will pay the fee back when she gets her first check. Elaine is thrilled and gets to work immediately, determined to get enough clients to make some money herself. However, her boss seems to have disappeared. When she goes looking for her she finds herself in trouble by association.

A great deal of Children of Invention is focused on the kids. It shows how they try to get by day by day, with one parent across the world and the other barely present. Tina seems to still have faith in her mother, but Raymond’s hope is growing weaker and weaker. He realizes that he has to become the man of the house. He makes sure Tina has something to eat, putting her before himself. They are largely living off Ramen noodles as they can’t really scrounge up enough money for anything else. Raymond’s role becomes all the more literal when their mother disappears. When she doesn’t come home one night, Raymond realizes that they will have to find a way to survive on their own. Raymond has a vibrant and inventive mind. He makes inventions out of household items for fun. He decides that he needs to take this to the next level though. He was left $500 for his birthday. Raymond decides he will attempt to take the check to Boston to get it cashed and then he will invest it in supplies for his inventions. Raymond and Tina can then sell these and ensure that they will be able to fend for themselves.

All of the performances in Children of Invention were very impressive. Cindy Cheung brings us the overworked, worrisome, and somewhat naïve Elaine. She is trying to work a number of jobs, consuming her time from dawn until dusk. She is doing this because she wants a better life for her children. In being so desperate to start making things better quick, she falls in to a number of scams, one which made them lose their house in the first place. Cheung shows Elaine’s vulnerabilities very well and although in a flawed sense we see her overwhelming desire to be a good mother. It pains her seeing Raymond take on responsibilities that shouldn’t be up to him. Cheung gets us to care about Elaine and to understand what she is attempting to do, although we wish she would wise up to what is going on around her.

Both Michael Chen and Crystal Chiu are cases of gifted child actors that understand their characters and allows us to understand them in the same way. Crystal Chiu is adorable as Tina, the younger of the two. Her dialogue and actions are all very childlike and it was good that her character was so true to life as I believe this person would act just the way that we see through the character and through Chiu. Michael Chen had a more mature role as Raymond. He worried about financial troubles and was ready to take care of his sister, taking on the fatherly role immediately. Chen shows that he has been wounded by both of his parents and has formed a sense of independence because of this. What is great about Raymond is that he is not purely an adult in a child’s shoes. The inventions and fantasies that he has illustrates that he still has a great youthfulness to him.

One thing very interesting about Children of Invention is that for the most part we see this very adult world from the child’s perspective. This is a youthful perspective, but one that is forced to grow up practically over night. The display of their perception of what it takes to make it in the world and the creative plight they have to do this through is captivating just as many dreamlike sequences that reveal the children’s inner most desires. They really dream of having their own house back. They don’t know how much this would cost, but as they know it’s a lot of money, 1 million dollars becomes the magic number to them. They try to navigate through the city, which quickly becomes very intimidating as they aren’t even supposed to leave the house. The images are very striking through this. There are bright lights everywhere among the darkness of the city as it was an off limits place to go alone and had this very scary and intimidating feel to these children. They form a bit of a sense of adventure, which is what carries their actions. Their imagination embodies them and they have the strength to act on these ambitions, even when they get a reality check once in awhile that the world they are living in is not quite the same world that their imaginations create. Children of Invention is a view on the troubles for immigrants. It shows the constant possibility of loss for illegal immigrants, particularly through how they are targeted. It is a rare film that shows adult struggles and in return the perception of the self-determined children through this life where attaining simple things become an adventure.