The Missing

It's 1885 New Mexico, Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) has return to reconcile with his estranged daughter Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett). He had abandoned her 20 years ago, and she rejects him right away. When her oldest daughter Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by Indian outlaws, Maggie must seek his father's help.

This is a departure from the usual Ron Howard fare. It's moody atmosphere can be attributed mostly to Tommy Lee Jones' performance. It's a fascinating side note to Howard's career and great to see him imitate 'The Searchers'. There is a lot of ugliness being shown but the ending is too traditional for this stark dark tale. I think Howard couldn't really go to the lower depths in the end. It's a great effort for an accomplished director to go outside his comfort zone.

`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

Ron Howard directs Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones, Evan Rachel Wood, and Val Kilmer in "The Missing," a 2003 western.

Cate Blanchett plays Maggie Gilkeson, a medical woman in 1885 New Mexico, where she lives with her daughters and a ranch hand Brake (Aaron Eckhart), who is also her lover. One day, her father Samuel (Tommy Lee Jones) shows up after 20 years. She wants nothing to do with him as he left the family to go live with the Indians.

He finally gets the message and takes off, only to become drunk in town and land in jail. Meanwhile, Maggie's daughter Lily has been kidnapped and Brake murdered, apparently by Indians. Unable to get help from the sheriff, Maggie reluctantly has her father released from jail and asks for his help in finding her daughter.

Lily and other girls have been kidnapped with the intention of selling them into prostitution. The kidnappers are a combination of renegade Indians and whites who are working with them. Maggie, her father, and her young daughter, who refuses to be left behind, set out on their trail.

Glorious-looking film that points up the brutality of life in the west, as well as the filth, and the strength that people had to have to survive. A woman had to be able to use a rifle, hunt, skin a deer, and do all the things that the men had to do.

My understanding is that this film bombed; I'm not sure why. It has wonderful performances and no expense was spared, and also, as far as the violence, seems realistic.

Cate Blanchett gives a magnificent performance as Maggie, a determined woman made of steel, who doesn't care what her father does for her - she still hates him. Tommy Lee Jones is a no-nonsense faux Indian (he might be part-Indian - this isn't made clear, but it seems unlikely) who knows his way around and believes in all the Indian lore. In one striking scene, Maggie becomes extremely ill -- according to Samuel, the brujo (Indian witch) put a curse on her. He calls in one of the Indians helping them to break the spell; meanwhile, her daughter reads the Bible out loud.

"The Missing" is reminiscent of "The Searchers" but here, the relationship between Samuel and Maggie goes a little deeper than thqt of Martin and Ethan. Maggie slowly moves from dislike to an uneasy alliance to a limited understanding of Samuel and finally, acceptance and gratitude, even if it's without total understanding. For Samuel, he is doing what he was told to do by a medicine man -- return to his family and protect them.

Truly excellent film, an old-fashioned western in many ways, intertwined with a strong relationship story and suspense.

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.