The Missing

The premise of this film that the main character (played by Cate Blanchett) is a rancher and doctor living in the wilds of New Mexico. Her daughter is kidnapped by a group of outlaws led by a psychopathic witch doctor. At the same time, her estanged father (played by Tommy Lee Jones) enters her life, and she is faced with her deep hatred of him, weighed against her need for his help. The rest of the story I won't give away.

I've read whisperings of Oscar nominations, which may be a fair statement, but although these rumors have been directed towards Blanchett, I would say that Jones had the stronger performance. Blanchett was excellent as well though, depicting a hard-laboring no-nonsense rancher perfectly, not trying to inject any glamour into her role whatsoever, as might have been the case if certain other big name actresses had played the role. I am forever amazed by Blanchett's versatility! The girls playing the daughters were excellent

too, specially the youngest one, who had a number of intense emotional scenes.

I liked the bleak feeling presented in the film...the raw climate, the hopelessness combined with determination that the characters portrayed. The heroic rescue attempts were not without their screw-ups, making the story much more realistic than a typical Western shoot-em-up hero movie.

I also enjoyed the element of mysticism, which was pulled off without being too corny. The main villain in this film was quite possibly the creepiest, ugliest villain to grace the screen in years! Yet somehow it wasn't too trite either.

My personal beef with most Hollywood epics is that friggin' annoying sweeping soundtrack music, which practically spells out to you how you are supposed to feel, replacing the emotion that should have been created by the acting and directing. Thankfully, the soundtrack didn't overwhem this film. Just some well placed ambient music which supplemented the scenes nicely.

Definitely one of the better films I've seen lately. I rate it 8/10.

God, how this film touched me. I saw something in Ms. Blanchett that I have never seen before; she actually became the character from the book and I was moved. After seeing the movie I tracked the book down ( it was difficult believe it or not ) and finished it in six hours. I am wondering why the screen writers changed the final scenes. Don't get me wrong, Ron Howard makes good to great movies ( this is a solid film from the historical point of view as well ) but I am left with more questions for him than I feel I will ever get answers.

Very reminiscent of 'The Searchers', probably the best of the John Wayne-John Ford teamups, 'Missing' plays better as a thriller set in the West, than as a 'mystical Western' (which is what I think it was really going for). Predictably excellent performances from Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones, and a fantastic performance from Eric Schweig as the Apache witch doctor. I was surprised to discover the film was mostly dumped on by critics in the US, and bombed there. It's had a much better response here, as I think it should have. Look out also for Evan Rachel Wood, so good in 'Thirteen', as the older of Blanchett's two daughters. This ranks as Ron Howard's best.

`The Missing' is as close to a feminist movie as can be telling a story that engrosses on the traditional level of the Western without offending warring cultural factions. Cate Blanchette plays a frontier single mom and local healer, whose teenage daughter is abducted by Apaches and army deserters to sell for prostitution in Mexico.

She must find her daughter and also deal with her estranged father, played by Tommy Lee Jones, who deserted his family 20 years ago to live with the Apaches and now tracks them with Blanchette to find his granddaughter.

Blanchette is not John Wayne, who played one of the `Searchers' in John Ford's memorable Western, certainly a source for this story. She lacks Wayne's easy bigotry about Indians, yet she carries toughness in adversity every bit as strong as Wayne at his most macho.

Nor is she Audrey Hepburn in John Huston's `The Unforgiven,' who is mostly protected from abduction-minded Kiawas by Burt Lancaster. No, Blanchette carves out a memorable stand-alone heroine in another sterling performance, certainly one of the top 2 actresses in film today.

Cinematographer Salvatore Totino uses aerial shots to capture the vast but imprisoning New Mexico landscape; James Horner's swelling music now and then feels as if it can't wait for another `Titanic'; Ron Howard's direction is unobtrusive, in the same way he allowed Russell Crowe to save Howard's middling `Beautiful Mind' screenplay. Actually Howard prepared himself by directing the Mel Gibson `Ransom,' also about abduction and pursuit.

The realism starts in the first scene with Blanchette extracting a tooth from an almost toothless hag and proceeds with multiple bloody encounters, too many for me in a long movie that could have edited out several encounters. But seeing Blanchette and Jenna Boyd as her younger daughter act with apparent full chops is to be happy that we no longer have to rely on Wayne for rugged individualism. As Gloria Steinem reminds us, `When both sexes realize that either one can be on top, we're all going to enjoy our relationships a lot more.'

The picture deals with a family formed by the mother (Cate Blanchett) , two daughters and her lover (Aaron Eckart ). The grandfather (Tommy Lee Jones) appears after long time . Then , the oldest daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by the Chiricaghua Apaches and they set out in looking her for . They will have to confront a lot of dangers and they will track down a group of Indians commanded by a villain and ominous sorcerer . The confrontation will be terrible .

In the film there are shootouts , noisy action , wonderful landscapes , fights and a little bit of violence . In the support cast of the film appears various actors who usually play Indians roles , such as Eric Schweig and Steve Reevis , because being native origin , and both of them along with Tommy Lee Jones learned some words of the Chiricaghua language . Eric Schweig along with Wes Studi , Graham Greene , Tantoo Cardinal , Michael Spears , Rodney A Grant and Floyd Westerman , among others , appear in almost all movies with Indians , starting with : ¨Dancing with wolves¨ and continuing with ¨The last Mohican¨ . And a brief role for Val Kilmer, who previously worked together director Ron Howard in Willow , as Kilmer lives on a nearby New Mexico ranch, agreed to producers a secondary cameo in this film . The motion picture didn't obtain success and was a real flop at box office , in spite of the extraordinary sets (New Mexico) , enjoyable cinematography and atmospheric musical score by the great James Horner. The flick will appeal to Indians western fans