Set in New Mexico in the 1880s, "The Missing" deals with frontier homesteader
Maggie Gilkeson (superbly played by Cate Blanchett) who makes a meager living
with her two daughters on her ranch as a healer. A patient who comes looking for
her medical help turns out to be none other than Maggie's estranged father,
Samuel (Tommy Lee Jones). Samuel had left his family many years ago and had
"gone native" by adopting the Apache Indian lifestyle as his own, and Jones
does a great job at capturing the off-kilter essence of a man who look and acts
like an Indian (he speaks the Apache language fluently) but who longs to return
to his family. However, Maggie is still bitter at having been abandoned by her
father as a child, and so after she treats his minor injury with all due
professionalism, Maggie demands that Samuel leave her home, and to never return.
When Samuel leaves, things get back to normal on the ranch--until Maggie's
daughters do not return from a day trip into town with her trusted ranch hands.
To her horror, she discovers the ranch hands were savagely killed and that Lily,
her eldest daughter (played with admirable vigor by Evan Rachel Wood), had been
abducted. Maggie's youngest daughter Dot (Jenna Boyd), who managed to avoid
capture, tells her mother that Lily was taken by Indians. At first Samuel is the
prime suspect in Maggie's eyes, until she finds out that the local sheriff had
him locked up all night for carousing. After being sprung from jail, Samuel
joins Maggie and Dot in an unlikely posse as they ride out across the New
Mexican landscape after Lily and her kidnappers.
While reminiscent of the classic John Ford western "The Searchers", "The Missing"
is an entertaining, gripping film in its own right. The tension comes from the
fact that the characters are racing against an urgent
deadline. The Apaches who kidnapped Lily and several other young women are being
brought over to Mexican buyers for purchase. And once she disappears over the
boarder, Samuel warns, Lily will be lost to Maggie forever. Eric Schweig does a
great job of playing the main villain, Chidin, as a malevolent shaman who
practices dark magic. Val Kilmer is also good in his small role as an
ineffectual Army officer.
"The Missing" could easily have been one of those mealy-mouthed children's
adventure films, such as the type that child star Hayley Mills did in her sleep
for Disney. But director Ron Howard deserves credit for not pulling any punches
in his harsh depiction of frontier life. Chidin and his men ruthlessly slaughter
whole families, and while most of these deaths occur off screen, the camera
still does not flinch from the results of these gruesome atrocities. One
interesting aspect to "The Missing" is the very slight touch of fantasy in the
film, such as the scene where Chidin magically attacks Maggie by making her
deathly ill. Although the pragmatic Maggie dismisses any such notion, the film
still treats Indian magic rituals as a real threat, and even Maggie eventually
wears a special Indian charm necklace, along with her Christian cross, to help
ward off evil spells. Despite this, Ron Howard has fashioned an entertaining
western with a great cast of solid actors who all make you care for the
characters' struggles.
"The Missing" is packaged in a two DVD set, with the second DVD devoted to special
features. Included in the special features are three alternate endings, 11
deleted scenes, and various mini-documentaries on the making of the film. There
is also a documentary on the short films of Ron Howard. --SF