Starring: Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones
Director: Ron Howard
Rated: M15+
THE Missing is set in the frontier land of New Mexico in the 19th century.
Maggie Gilkeson’s (Cate Blanchett) husband abandoned her soon after their youngest daughter was born. He went ‘Indian’.
Maggie refused to walk off the place and so she works it with her daughters, Lily (Evan Rachel Ward) and Dot (Jenna Boyd).
Indians and settlers alike respect Maggie for her talents as a surgeon, dentist and pharmacist.
Out of nowhere Maggie’s husband Samuel (Tommy Lee Jones) turns up and is sent packing just as quickly.
Soon after, Lily is abducted by a psychotic tribe of Indians who specialise in trading young women ‘down Mexico way’. Maggie and Samuel team up to rescue their daughter.
Ron Howard is a very talented director with Apollo 13, Ransom, A Beautiful Mind, The Paper and Edtv to his credit. These films demonstrate his flair and the breadth of his interests. His films always pitch human beings against overwhelming odds, within which they have to make serious ethical choices.
In The Missing, Howard takes his interests to the western genre.
There is much to recommend The Missing. It is generally suspenseful, with some unpredictable twists in the plot. He places a strong woman at the centre stage of the drama and casts other actors who give universally compelling performances.
In homage to John Ford, the diverse locations in varying seasons are beautifully shot and are only matched by the majesty of human love acted out within them.
Even the make-up department gets it right in taking the beautiful Blanchett and giving her hard, calloused working hands.
If only Cold Mountain had done the same for Nicole Kidman, it might have been a more believable story.
On a spiritual plane, The Missing takes Indian and Christian beliefs very seriously. It omits the travesty of presenting Christianity as being exclusively good, and indigenous beliefs as being all bad, but rather the film shows how both inform the character of the believer.
Christian themes of sin, redemption, sacrifice and hard won reconciliation are never far from the centre of this drama.
But for all that Ron Howard seems to lose his focus in The Missing. He spends what seems an age setting up the domestic drama and then another age getting to the showdown.
The Missing ends up flat in parts and too long. Be warned that this film has some violent scenes and some very big shocks.
It might be well worth seeing The Missing but it will not rank as one of Ron Howard’s best films.
