Drama, 2003
Director: Ron Howard
Writers: Ken Kauffman, Thomas Edison
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones, Evan Rachel Wood

After winning the Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind, Ron Howard’s latest film is expectedly more ambitious.  The Missing (based on the book The Last Ride) is a strange mix of a western action thriller coupled a few supernatural touches and drama about redemption.  Tommy Lee Jones (Oscar winner from The Fugitive) plays a stubborn and conflicted man, also called Jones, who appears unannounced to his daughter, Maggie (Cate Blanchett) trying to make amends for abandoning her when she was a child to spend 20 years with the Apache people.  Maggie, now settled with two daughters and her lover (Aaron Eckhart), is unforgiving and throws Jones out.  But it is not until her lover is brutally killed (though not graphically shown) and Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood) kidnapped by a psychopathic Indian (Canada’s own Eric Schweig) that she desperately accepts his help.

The success of The Missing relies heavily on the dynamics of the relationship between Maggie and Jones – both highly different yet flawed characters. The idea works best during the action scenes when their courage pours forth and least whenever the script calls for confrontational banter. The overly long dialogue between the two near the film’s end is clearly indicative that the viewer has got the point already.  Though the story is supposedly told from the point of the younger daughter Dot’s (Jenna Boyd), the film ultimately hinges on adult territory, especially when the plot calls for many gruesome and violent scenes.

Fortunately the action sequences give the film a welcome boost whenever the pace staggers from the dramatic narrative.  The two best of these, Lilly’s attempted escape and Dot’s near drowning from the storm waters contrast not only the differences of the girls’ natures but ironically how fate could destroy their lives in different waves – the brave boyish one by an act of nature and the fragile one from a daring act.

Howard’s film is noticeably politically correct – the film pokes equal fun on both the white man and Apaches’ ignorances.  The script stresses, though once too often, the lack of modern devices as if to constantly remind the viewer of either the reliance of the film’s principals on each other.  (The camera and telegram were praised as wonders of technology.) To meet with Hollywood standards for a festive epic watchable by the whole family, most of the horrors committed by the Apaches are implied off-screen.

One complaint about Howard’s films is their forgettablilty. Can anyone really remember what either Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind or Parenthood were all about? The Missing will possible be best remembered of all the Howard films – primarily for the strength of the performances of the two leads - Blanchett and Jones.  Jones, reportedly spent quite some time with actual Apaches to learn their language and mores.  But the greatest star of the film is Salvatore Totino’s stunning photography of New Mexico, where the film is set.  From the sandy dunes to the icy peaks on the mountains, nature’s beauty is effectively captured on film.  And this is what makes The Missing so astonishing.

GILBERT SEAH was born in Singapore and moved to Toronto in 1982. He is an engineer by profession, with a passion for the cinema. Since the age of 10, he has been to the movies almost daily. Having been brought up in the Asian, British and Canadian cultures, he is able to bring a distinct perspective to film.