The sort of nothing-special thriller you’d be reasonably happy to watch on a plane or late-night cable, Gone has a nice sense of escalating panic and empowerment as Seyfried’s wide-eyed heroine goes off her meds and shows some detective smarts – inventing plausible lies at every turn – which also make even those who sympathise with her quest wonder if she’s made it all up and the missing girl has just gone off on a bender.
A succession of you-know-the-face character actors crop up as witnesses who might just have something to hide or cops who might be working their own agenda, but it’s a star turn for Seyfried, who manages to be credibly jittery and emperilled but show some action chick smarts as if she were the Girl With the Dragon Temporary Tattoo. There’s a creepy trip into Oregon woods at the end, with Seyfried exchanging barbed dialogue over the mobile phone with the flat-voiced mystery man who seems to know the answer, but the finale doesn’t go for Grand Guignol when the film really could do with a lift.