Review: Missing, The (2003/I)

THE MISSING
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2003 David N. Butterworth

*** (out of ****)


     Epic and enigmatic, "The Missing" is a nicely shot, terrifically acted,
and very un-Ron Howard Ron Howard film that's dependable and workmanlike but
never really explodes into anything significant.  Set in New Mexico at the
turn
of the 19th Century (1885 to be precise), the film focuses on one Maggie
Gilkeson
(solidly played by Cate Blanchett), healer, homesteader, mother of two young
girls.  Fiery and independent, Maggie works her New Frontier land, refusing
no man medical treatment yet refusing to marry her longtime lover Brake ("The
Core"'s Aaron Eckhart), not for his want of asking.  When Maggie's teenage
daughter
Lily ("Thirteen"'s Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by a band of marauding
Apache
(the film is set during a time when white men still referred to them as
Indians),
Maggie must turn to her estranged father (Tommy Lee Jones) for help in
tracking
Lily south to the Mexican border before she's sold into prostitution.  Thomas
Eidson's novel "The Last Ride" is given the sweeping vista treatment by Howard
and screenwriter Ken Kaufman with a little supernatural mumbo jumbo (but not
as much as in the book) thrown in for good measure.  There are big skies and
big monuments and big monument valleys for the taking here, lovingly
photographed
by Salvatore Totino and nostalgically scored by James Horner, with a more than
a passing nod to Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western scores of yesteryear (see
Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy).  As previously mentioned the performances
are second to none, not just by the Oscar®-winning/nominated leads but by
youngsters
Wood and Jenna Boyd ("Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star"), who plays the
spunky
ten-year-old Dot Gilkeson with amazing toughness and versatility.  The
relationships
between Maggie and Brake, Maggie and her daughters, and (especially) Maggie
and her father, who deserted her and her mother two decades earlier and went
to live with the Indians, are perceptively written and keep the story moving,
with some disturbing scenes of violence adding to the overall Western flavor.
 It's more gritty and "realistic" than most Ron Howard movies ("A Beautiful
Mind," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas") and certainly worth a look.


--
David N. Butterworth
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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X-RT-RatingText: 3/4