Artwork by
Dennis Murphy

For the students, by the students

You might not want to miss “The Missing”
Kelly Connett, CAFNR Corner Post staff

December 7, 2003- Last Friday night, I ventured out of the dorm and into Hollywood theatres with a few friends to watch “The Missing”. When I left the theatre, I decided I was glad I didn’t miss it. ‘The Missing” stars Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett in a western suspense film directed by Ron Howard. Blanchett plays Maggie Gilkeson, a young single woman, raising her two daughters on her own out in the wilderness. When her oldest daughter is kidnapped by Indians, she must call on her father, Jones, who abandoned her family when she was young. The film follows the two as they track down the group that kidnapped her daughter lead by an evil witch of the Indians, and their attempt to rekindle their relationship.

This film held a lot of suspense in store for the audience, but had quite a dark nature as well. If you can’t watch graphic scenes or scenes filmed with strong violence this is not the film for you, or anyone that that is below the age of upper middle school. Hence, this is probably why the film is rated R. Ron Howard did an excellent job of directing in this film. The angles and twists that were put in the film gave it just enough so you didn’t always know what was going to happen next, but you weren’t totally lost either.

Not having seen Tommy Lee Jones in this form of picture before showed that he has immaculate depth as an actor. He pulled off the role in classic Jones style. Blanchett performed beautifully as well, especially when it came to some intense scenes. The oldest daughter who was kidnapped was played by Evan Rachel Wood, who shows promise of being a strong central role character in the future.

Even though this is a western-style movie, don’t let that scare you away from this movie. It is not remotely close to those John Wayne movies your grandpa watches and can say every line to. Ron Howard puts an interesting twist and new look to what seems like the long time forgotten western-style film. Don’t worry if you are a classic western fan though, there are still plenty of shoot-outs, horses, and western figures present in the film.

If you are really in to witchcraft material this would also be a good film for you. Even though you might not expect it, this film is loaded with witchcraft of the Native American kind. This was very detailed subject throughout the entire movie. It could have done with less of this aspect, but it didn’t take away from the film too much.

Overall on a grading scale, I would give this movie a B. It was a fascinating film in the fact that is different then any other movies that have been released lately. This film is not a copy cat in that retrospect at all. It did however lead you wanting more from the characters at time and less of the violence and graphic psychological nature. I would recommend seeing the film at least once, but I won’t anticipate buying it on DVD for you collection at home.

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