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Taking place in the year 1885 in New
Mexico, The Missing stars Cate Blanchett as Maggie Gilkeson, a
determined "healer" who lives on a ranch with her two
daughters Lily (Evan Rachel Wood) and Dot (Jenna Boyd) and her boyfriend
Brake Baldwin (Aaron Eckhart). Brake, Lily and Dot leave the ranch one
day to head into town when they are sabotaged by a pack of ruthless
savages, that includes both Apache Indians and the evil white man. Led
by a demonic medicine man Apache known as Chidin (Eric Schweig), Lily is
kidnapped and added to a stable of young women that the scoundrels
intend to sell to Mexican slave traders. Maggie must save her daughter
before she crosses the Mexican border or chances are she will never see
her again. She is forced to seek the help of her estranged father,
Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones), a man with whom she has not spoken since
childhood, when he abandoned his family to join an Indian tribe, a
decision of his that is never fully explained.
Going into The Missing, I did not know much about the movie. Based on
what I had seen on TV spots and trailers, I knew there was a story about
a daughter going missing and it seemed like there would be a big
supernatural element to the movie. Although there was a touch of voodoo
magic in The Missing, it is a very minor story in the movie. The two
main stories are the desperate search for the missing daughter and the
strained relationship between Maggie and her father. It is a fairly
straightforward movie with not a whole lot going on, but I did find the
reasons for the problems between Maggie and her dad were explained too
vaguely. Despite the simplicity of the movie, I did enjoy it. The
casting in the movie is excellent. Cate Blanchett does a wonderful job
in a movie for the second time this year - her first being as Veronica
Guerin. She will wrap up her film year in The Return of the King in a
few weeks for a very impressive trifecta of movies in 2003. Young Jenna
Boyd as Maggie's daughter Dot is equally impressive as the strong-willed
little girl, as is Tommy Lee Jones as the tough-as-nails father. Eric
Schweig is simply terrifying as the Apache witch doctor, Chidin.
Everytime he graces the screen, you will wish him a slow and painful
death, which leads me to wonder how offended current day Natives will
feel after seeing The Missing. The Natives in the movie are not shown in
a good light. One of Samuel's friends, Kayitah (Jay Tavare), shows up
midway through the movie and is a very brave Indian, with a good sense
of humour to boot, but I fear this may not be enough to deflect
attention from how pretty much every other Indian in the movie is
depicted. It is hard for me to understand how they might feel since I
represent the evil white man in the movie but I guess only time will
tell.
Perhaps the only thing I would suggest would have made for a better
movie would have been a better ending. The ending was like the rest of
the movie - too simple and too generic. And too predictable. I'm sure
from just reading this review if you want to guess the ending, you
probably have about a 90% chance of getting it right. It is this
simplicity in the movie that will prevent The Missing from being the
major Oscar contender that some have predicted. There is just not enough
substance in this movie for it to garner Oscar buzz. I did like the
movie. And the cast really is outstanding. Ron Howard's direction is
adequate. And there are some genuine edge-of-your-seat moments in the
movie. But it is like eating a hamburger and eating a steak. Sure the
hamburger tastes good, will fill your belly and leaves you with a smile
on your face. But nothing can beat a nice juicy barbecued steak. The
Missing is all hamburger. A really good, filling hamburger. But it ain't
no steak.
 
- 7/10
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Brendan Cullin - Senior Editor
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