neumu [ cinematronic ]




	The Missing
	Ron Howard Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Evan Rachel Wood, Aaron Eckhart, Jenna Boyd, Eric Schweig 2003		With "The Missing," director Ron Howard travels into territory staked out by the legendary filmmaker John Ford ("The Searchers") and, more recently, Clint Eastwood ("Unforgiven"): the philosophic Western. "The Missing" is a pretty good 'un, largely due to Howard's posse: an excellent cast led by Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones and Evan Rachel Wood. The direction and cinematography are first-rate, too. One thing is certain about Howard — he's not inclined to repeat himself. His filmography stretches from the fantasy-drenched romantic comedy "Splash" to the incendiary, action-packed drama "Backdraft" to the serious, Oscar-courting biopic "A Beautiful Mind." Here, he oversees a sagebrush quest set in the American Southwest of 1885. Maggie (Blanchett), a healer who's raising her two daughters in the wilderness, is forced to reunite with her estranged father (Jones), a white man who has embraced the ways of the Native American, in order to save her kidnapped oldest daughter (Wood). Unless they quickly find the girl, she'll be taken across the Mexican border and sold into prostitution by an evil shaman and his band of renegades. Offering drama, suspense, mysticism and portraits of courage, "The Missing" hits its mark.