The Missing Movie Review:

“The Missing” is a dark and taunt western that also has its share of miscues. Though drawn out a little too far, director Ron Howard keeps things interesting. “The Missing” is Howard's follow-up to his Oscar winning “A Beautiful Mind.” In a western-style, the film mirrors “The Searchers,” but it is more gritty and bloody. The story centers on a kidnapping during 1885 in New Mexico . Though the western genre is something new for Howard, a kidnapping tale is not, since he delivered the solid thriller “Ransom” seven years ago.

Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett) is a mother of two young daughters, the teenaged Lilly ( Thirteen 's Evan Rachel Wood) and the young child Dot (Jenna Boyd), and is also obliged to her farm and area. Maggie is considered “the healer” in this part of the area, due to her knowledge of medical remedies. Her lover is fellow farm hand Brake (Aaron Eckhart), who is the nearest thing to a father that either one of her daughters have had. One day a stranger rides upon Maggie's land named Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones), who appears to be Indian, but is actually a white man. Maggie becomes resented by the stranger's presence and orders Brake to send him on his way. Eventually, the audience learns that Samuel is Maggie's disarrayed father, who abandoned her when she was a child to go live with the Apache Indians. Samuel's attempt to make peace with his daughter is denied and in his own guilt he leaves.

The next day, while leaving to seek out cattle and supplies, Lilly is abducted by a ruthless ex-medicine man, turned witch (Eric Schweig). The witch along with his cold-hearted crew have been kidnapping girls in area in order to sell them into slavery in Mexico for vast sums of money. With nowhere else to turn, Maggie rejoins her father, a tracker by trade, in an attempt to save Lilly before the abducting entourage crosses the border into Mexico .

Howard's sense and scope of storytelling are what keeps this film moving despite its redundancies and hiccups. Howard vastly captures the landscapes and wilderness, but more so he captures the complexity of the parent-sibling relationships in the film. Though Howard takes his time with pacing, there are still many thrilling moments, and some very dark moments that make this film more psychological than first perceived. As a contribution to many of Howard's past films, James Horner delivers another transcending and effective musical score in “The Missing.”

The flaws of the film come mostly from Ken Kaufman's script, which was adapted from the novel “The Last Ride” by Thomas Eidson. There are so many escape attempts go wrong in this film, that it literally becomes annoying. From a reflection, to screams, to a suicide, one can guess the predictable escape attempts going weary. There are also two key characters, which are friends' of Samuel's that just arrive three-fourths into the movie. Though the characters are key to the film, their introduction is very abrupt. The script also implies many powers by the witch Chidin, but hardly any of them are explained, such as a moment where a character has a life-threatening substance funneled down his nose. The strength of the script is the central characters, in which Kaufman hints at deeper aspects with the character's past, but the audience is told just enough to get to know them and their purpose.

Cate Blanchett is great actress, and she does not disappoint in this film as Maggie. Blanchett's screams of agony in the film are tormenting, and her presence is well felt. Though Tommy Lee Jones delivers one of his best roles in awhile, the question still ponders, how many times do we have to see him track or chase a bad guy in a movie? This character is more in-depth than his past “chase” roles with the background and motivations of Samuel. Young Jenna Boyd delivers a great performance with stirring emotions as the youngest daughter Dot. Boyd's name should become known in the upcoming years, if she continues to find good work. The other daughter in the film, Lilly, played by Thirteen 's Evan Rachel Wood is strong as well. Aaron Eckhart and Val Kilmer also have small roles in the film, and both deliver with what each of their roles ask for.

“The Missing” is entertaining by all means, but it has its share of problems. However, it is engaging to see Blanchett work, and there are a share of thrills in this film. Being a western, in which “Open Range” has already done well this year, The Missing may find its own adult audience over the holiday weekend.

Grade: B-

11/24/03

By Joseph Tucker

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Some may call acclaimed director Ron Howard, a chameleon but in his latest film little maybe missing as he once more takes a bold move to expand his repertoire.

Howard’s latest venture is a journey into the back-bone of the “frontier” western. Western’s seem to have two or three standard categories. The two high-profile kinds of westerns are the “frontier” and the “gunfight” western. “Frontier” westerns tend to delve more into the struggle it took for pioneers to settle the untamed west. It is usually a survival piece shaded with high energy adventure. The “gunfight” style is pretty much what it states usually a good vs. bad or a group of good cowboys against the odds kind of film.

In recent years we have seen these styles become harder to recognize as the “modern” western emerged. With the dawn of Oscar-winners like “Unforgiven” and “Dances With Wolves” we saw a dramatic change in the genre. The films seemed to be an evolution of the “gunfight” western with emotional tones of the “frontier” western. This brings us to Ron Howard’s “The Missing”.

His film debuts with the isolated but content family Gilkeson in the American Southwest in 1885. The matriarch of the Gilkeson’s is Maggie (Cate Blanchett) who is raising two daughters, Lily (Evan Rachel Wood) and Dot (Jenna Boyd) with help of her live-in boyfriend, Brake (Aaron Eckhart).

The family’s content existence is challenged with Maggie’s estranged “gone-native” father, Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) returns. Maggie’s discontent with her father’s visit and her anger towards him forces Brake to force Jones from their lives on the eve of an earth-shattering event that will change Maggie forever.

When the three significant people in Maggie’s life suddenly disappear during a routine ranching venture, Maggie must turn to her father for guidance in tracking down their whereabouts. Though this event will push Maggie further than anything before, it may also unravel the mystery to why her father left her so many years ago.

Howard’s intense delving into the mind and spirit of his heroine allows Cate Blanchett to emerge at the top her game. With a squint of her eye, wrinkle of her brow or a tear from her eye, Blanchett is magical and utterly captivating in the role of a distraught mother. Her performance countered by steadfast Jones makes for very interesting viewing. I liked watching their relationship unravel more than the film’s whole terrifying kidnapping storyline.

Howard’s depiction of the classic western genre is deeply rooted in the “frontier” style as we follow a strong woman as she tries to survive after the men in her life have let her down in some way. Blanchett and Howard’s frontier woman seems to draw a lot of strength from another western heroine. In 1993’s “The Ballad of Little Jo”, we saw the first real woman centered western and I could see a lot the strength of “Little Jo’s” central character, Josephine Monaghan (play to perfection by Suzy Amis), in Blanchett’s Maggie. This is what Howard focuses on as he unhinges his “frontier” western with a harrowing kidnapping. This adds tension to the “frontier” western without having the soul support of survival. Instead of surviving the west, the characters must survive the event.

In Howard’s previous kidnapping drama “Ransom,” the film focused on the aftermath of the kidnapping and the victim’s parents. In “The Missing” he goes one more step further as he also shows the viewpoint of the victim herself. This adds another strong female characterization as phenom Evan Rachel Wood’s Lily has to come to face to face with an evil Apache shaman. Wood’s restrained and innocent take on the role brings Lily out as very real. The more desperate she becomes the more strength you can see in the young actress. It isn’t as overpowering as her role in “Thirteen” but still a great performance.

Howard’s trend of powerful female leads concludes with an amazing performance from new-comer Jenna Boyd. The amount of strength, range and scene-stealing ability is sure to make anyone praise this kid. In every scene, she literally eats up the screen. She is just so good. Look out, Dakota.

Ron Howard’s “The Missing” ups the antes in a lot of ways as he takes the mantle held by “Ballad of Little Jo” and goes one step further. He then also adds to the “frontier” western by adding a new direction of survival. These are amazing accomplishments. This coupled with the three stand-out female performances make “The Missing” a formidable ride.

My only small problem with the film was that the harrowing ordeals of the kidnapping were extremely hard to endure. Not only do the characters have to survive but so does the audience. I would have liked to enjoy more of the relationships than the ordeals. “The Missing” is another brilliant western, “frontier” or not.

(4.25 out of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer.

Dean Kish

Ron Howard tackles the Old West with this sweeping drama, which has clear echoes of John Ford's seminal The Searchers. It's an entertaining and gripping film, with stunning production values and magnetic performances. And yet the script's continual pandering to Hollywood cliches lets it down. Maggie (Blanchett) is a feisty medicine woman in 1885 New Mexico, raising daughters Lilly and Dot (Wood and Boyd) on her own and running an isolated farm with a couple of hired hands (Eckhart and Calderon). She gets a serious shock when her long-lost father (Jones) reappears, and she has no intention of welcoming him into her life. But when Lilly is kidnapped by Apaches, Maggie needs his help to get her back. And to stop the evil brujo kidnapper (Schweig) from selling her over the border in Mexico.

This is a terrific story, ripe with meaning as Maggie tries to avoid her father's attempts to reconnect with his family, and yet she begins to realise that her search for her daughter is paralleled in his quest. Jones and Blanchett create powerfully evocative characters that really connect with the audience. It's also great to see such a strong female character in a Western! Howard directs with elegant beauty that captures the genre perfectly and frames these fascinating, involving people against magnificent Southwest landscapes. He's also surprisingly bold in showing us the gruesome violence. And the rescue mission is absolutely riveting! So it's a shame the script continually throws us out of the story with its weak plotting, cross-cutting with Lilly's adventures (interesting but essentially irrelevant), an unbelievably stereotypical villain without even a shred of humanity, and a series of meaningless action sequences that feel dropped in merely to grab our attention rather than tell us anything we don't already know. These things don't destroy the film--it's still engaging on several levels--but they keep it from ever being anything very special. And they're sadly typical of Howard's work as a director: looks great, wonderful ideas, but the elements never quite come together in an original or important way.

Rich Cline

When her eldest daughter Lily (Wood) is knapped by renegade Apache Indians, Maggie (Blanchett) is forced to seek the help of her estranged father Samuel (Jones) to track them down. This isn’t going to be simple however, as the man they are tracking is a feared Indian witch called Chidin (Schweig) who is taking girls to Mexico to sell them into prostitution.

Oscar winning director Ron Howard returns to fulfil a dream, directing a western and The Missing is a really good one.

Based on the best selling novel by Thomas Eidson, Howard raises to the occasion to produce a movie that not only captures the essence of what makes these movie great but also injects some modern issues into the mix. Along with the usual shootouts, Indians and sprawling shots of the magnificent scenery of the west, issues such as the dysfunctional family, rebellious teenagers and empowered women are thrown into the mix creating a cocktail of the contemporary and historical.

The performances are very good. The always extremely watchable Cate Blanchett brings dignity and gusto to the role of Maggie. This is a strong female character that pulls no punches when it comes to getting her daughter back. This is the type of woman that Blanchett excels at playing and really brings out her acting strengths.

Tommy Lee Jones is his usual rugged self, bringing strength, dignity and a certain amount of humour to the role of Samuel. This might be the kind of character than he can play in his sleep but it does standout from his usual turn. He brings believability and even some tenderness to the man who has to reassess his life and his connection to family.

The support is also very good. Evan Rachel Wood continues to make a name for herself as upcoming teenage actress to watch. Eric Schweig is extremely creepy as the Indian witch Chidin, a real screen villain. Jenna Boyd is another child actress that acts way beyond her years with a standout performance. Where do they find these kids? There are also some good cameos from Aaron Eckhart, Val Kilmer and usual Ron Howard stalwart, this brother Clint Howard.

You can tell that Ron Howard really loves this genre as he injects elements from all the great pictures that have been set in the period. He throws his own touches into the mix while paying homage to the greats like Eastwood, Wayne and Cooper. Howard’s eye for detail and authenticity standout as this is one of the best looking westerns to come along in a very long time but he also accentuates the importance of strong characters against this spectacular background.

The Missing might be slightly overlong but the performances and the grandiose way it was shot keeps the interest ticking over until the invertible shoot out in the finale. This is a western made by someone with a real passion for the genre and should be embraced by anyone who loves to hark back to the days of the Wild West.

Star Rating = * * * *

Jamie Kelwick

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