Director: Ron Howard, 2003
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones, Evan Rachel Wood, Val Kilmer
Out to buy: On DVD and video
Although it was adapted from Thomas Eidson’s novel The Last Ride, Howard’s frontier kidnap drama clearly owes a heavy debt to John Ford’s western The Searchers. Instead of John Wayne trailing the Comanche bandits who abducted his niece, Blanchett and Jones play an estranged father-daughter team reunited in their quest to retrieve Blanchett’s own daughter (Wood) from Apache slave traders. Prickly subject matter indeed. Trust a seasoned cheerleader for schmaltzy Americana such as Howard to sweeten it into a cosy redemption fable.
Set against the wintry vistas of 1880s New Mexico, The Missing is a visually stunning but ultimately tedious endurance test. Jones gives an understated, soulful performance while Blanchett conveys steely vulnerability, but both are trapped in an aimless, interminable plot. There are bloody deaths galore, and uncomfortable contrasts to be drawn with contemporary racial and sexual issues. But somehow Howard manages to muffle everything with woolly New Age wisdom and James Horner’ s syrupy orchestral score.
Among the slender DVD extras, Howard shares some early home movies and discusses his love of westerns. But none of his cheery platitudes can save The Missing from being blander than a Kevin Costner vanity project.
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DVD extras Howard interview, alternative endings, out-takes
Stephen Dalton