Although the structure often trots out well-worn tropes, and a few hairpin storyline turns might have you rolling your eyes, this is a work of screen-popping South of France visuals, well-choreographed chase sequences, and a visceral, unvarnished lead performance by Kaley Cuoco.

What Vanished manages to do with genre staples is inspired, even if it does leave a bitter aftertaste.

Claflin and Cuoco are talented performers individually, but together, they fail to fully sell their characters’ seemingly intense dynamic. Watchable as it may be, Vanished also ends up as a relatively hollow thriller that depicts Middle Eastern countries with an annoying sepia filter.

If you have had a very bad day, Vanished is slight and daft and distracting enough to soothe a fractious soul. Other than that, let us hope both the leads get a chance to show up in something much, much better next time.

Despite the ever-charming presence of Cuoco and fantastic European vistas, Vanished just feels slight and predictable, and even borderline implausible.

There are plenty of things it does right, or at least adequately. .... The problem is that Vanished never gets around to a reason to care very much about the mystery at hand.

Cuoco and Claflin have no more chemistry than figures on facing pages in a clothing catalog. .... She’s not well served by the pedestrian direction and dialogue, but comes across as a person playing a person, rather than as the person she’s playing. Perhaps by virtue of their accents, the French actors feel more real; France, as usual, looks great.