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 dnb@dca.net
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