|
THE MISSING Send This Review to a Friend
An engrossing western yarn, "The Missing" stars Cate Blanchett as Maggie, a frontier woman whose daughter Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by renegade Apaches with the intention of selling her and other captured women to Mexicans. Maggie sets out with her estranged father Samuel (Tommy Lee Jones), who has just surfaced unexpectedly, and her younger daughter Dot (Jenna Boyd). The chase is on to find and free the daughter, a process that also sets the stage for resolution of father-daughter issues and mother-daughter tensions as well.
Director Ron Howard has made a leisurely, good-looking film that inevitably will remind some of John Ford's superior "The Searchers." This one doesn't rise above an involving story told against fabulous scenic backdrops, but it has traditional action for fans of westerns and good performances. Samuel is despised by Maggie, who has resented his leaving her and her mother and blames him for her mother's death. He has become fascinated with Indian lore, is a believer of superstitions, has his own reasons for having returned and is an expert tracker.
The villains are really villainous, nasty types who kill at will and take pleasure in inflicting suffering. Blanchett is effective as a determined prairie mom who knows how to fend for herself, takes matters in her own hands when it comes to her daughter and can shoot a rifle when she has to. The film is on the long side, and one stretch in which superstitions seems to work is a bit much and gives the drama a silly burden that interferes with the main action drive.
"The Missing" may not be "The Searchers" but workable westerns don't come around every day. The screenplay was written by Ken Kaufman based on Thomas Edison's novel "The Last Ride." A Columbia Pictures and Revolution Studios release.
|