In short, Southwest America, 1885, a tough rural
doctor/healer (Blanchett) gets a visit from her long
gone deadbeat dad (Lee Jones) on the same day that
her daughter goes missing. The production notes call
it a "starkly beautiful" picture and besides being an
"action-filled suspense thriller," they say it's also
a "powerful drama of love, forgiveness and
redemption."
Initially, what interested me most were Tommy
Lee-Jones (lead) and Ron Howard (directing). But, the
picture disappointed me. I found it stark, but hardly
beautiful. Though Tommy as the Indianized white man,
and the perfectly cast daughter Dot (Jenna Boyd) are
both strong, the film sounds very few
emotionally-striking notes. And there is plenty of
good opportunity for such emotion. Additionally,
MISSING offers far less of an eerily supernaturalness
than I'd expected. Lastly, I became frustrated with
some sort of defeating blunder occurring every time a
possible positive progression transpired.
That said, the film does deliver on the
action/suspense thriller promise. And to be fair,
this is a genre that doesn't particularly excite me,
so I must admit a pre-disposed bias.
Howard says of Jones "Tommy Lee already had a vast
knowledge of the old West and after studying for
months with real Apache elders, for whom he showed
the highest respect, be became fascinated with every
detail of the culture. He was a champion of the
Apache language, culture and psychology."
|