Watch The Missing For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Blistering performances.

I know that Clint Howard is cast in each of brother Ronnie's films but I never knew he also had all those other relatives who write perfect 10 reviews. My only guess is that the reviewer who wrote that it was "...the best western ever made." has never seen any films made pre-2000. How an actual film lover/reviewer could rate this above: High Noon, Outlaw Josie Whales, Fort Apache, The Searchers (The real one), True Grit, Jeremiah Johnson, Unforgiven, Winchester 73, They died with their boots on, Magnificent Seven!!! and on and on and......is beyond my comprehension. As I said, not the worst, but COME ON MAN!!!

I have always loved westerns, since I started watching them back in the 1940's, and this one is entertaining. Cate Blanchett who for my money can hold her own with the very best actors currently working, and even a few legends like Katherine Hepburn, who she once so ably portrayed in The Aviator. And Tommy Lee Jones, who is a natural fit for the western genre, both combine their talents to make this very watchable, although the plot is somewhat predictable, and rather slow paced. Still, the character studies are worth the viewing, and there is enough action to satisfy the formula. Val Kilmer and others lend valuable support, although in Kilmer's case I cannot help but hear Doc Holiday in his drawl. This one slipped by me when it first appeared in theaters, and I'm glad to catch up with it at last. Worth your while, if you like solid acting, and western films.

I'm one of Cate Blanchett's biggest fans because she hasn't disappointed me in any movie until I saw this one. Please check out such Blanchett gems as Kieslowski's "Heaven" her two QE 1 movies or the well-deserved Oscar-winning performance in "Blue Jasmine".The Missing is an overly long, cliché-ridden pointless pseudo-western. Did everybody else watch the same version I did? Is the theme of this movie father/daughter reconciliation or is it to demonstrate that aboriginal shamanism is more powerful than Christianity? Both themes have been explored better in other films. You can pick out right at the beginning of the film who will still be living at the end and who won't be standing. No spoilers needed.I am particularly annoyed by the portrayal of Christianity in the film as one of bitterness and prejudice. This particular movie cliché dismisses the loving acts of committed Christians over the centuries.Nothing redeeming.

I feel the need to say right off the top that there was a lot about "The Missing" that I actually liked. I thought that Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones were both very good. Blanchett played a mom whose daughter gets kidnapped by Apaches, who've been stealing girls in raids to sell (presumably into prostitution) in Mexico. Jones was her estranged father, who abandoned her when she was a girl and suddenly showed up at her farm all these years later (after having "gone Indian") looking to make amends. Both Jones and Blanchett were believable in their roles. The basic story served to bring forth a feeling of sympathy for these poor girls who've been kidnapped (since we know what their fate is going to be if they're not rescued) and it makes us root for Blanchett and Jones as they set out to rescue them. The climactic confrontation at the end is pretty well done and pretty exciting. All that worked pretty well here. So, what was the problem with this?First was the pacing. It just seemed off. The first 1:45 or so was uneven and probably spent a little too much time (especially near the beginning) telling us that the mom and her estranged father were - well - estranged. I got the point. I wasn't sure, either, about the focus that ended up being put on the "Indian spirituality" (for lack of a better way of describing it) that Jones' character had picked up, basically because, this being Hollywood, I doubted that much of it was authentic anyway. It looked more like an attempt to remind the viewer that - hey - there are Indians in this movie. And, frankly, the movie was a half hour too long. It's true enough that most of the excitement in this was in that last half hour. But most of what happened in that period could (in my opinion anyway) have been integrated into the earlier part of the story, which some of the unnecessary material cut out) and that would have resulted in a decent and more compact (and more focused) movie. As it was, this seemed a little bit all over the lace, and I really think the movie should have simply ended with the rescue of the girls, rather than with the unnecessary last half hour (and, as I said, what happens in the last half hour could have easily been moved earlier, which would have made for a better movie.)As it is, it's a decent movie - and it does keep your attention, because you do want these girls to be rescued. So, it's very watchable in spite of its problems. It's just not great. (5/10)