This is not one of Howard’s better films, but a mediocre Ron Howard film is better than the best of better than half of Hollywood.
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11/26/03
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The Missing (2003)
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Reviews Counted:166
Fresh:98
Rotten:68
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: An expertly acted and directed Western. But like other Ron Howard features, the movie is hardly subtle.
Theatrical Release:Nov 26, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $26,811,707
Synopsis: Director Ron Howard, who impressed audiences with BACKDRAFT (1991) and A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001), has outdone himself with THE MISSING, a wrenching family drama that unfolds in the midst of a classic... [More]
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Evan Rachel Wood, Eric Schweig
Director: Ron Howard
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Reviews for The Missing
A movie that is, by turns, needlessly unpleasant for cheap effect and misguidedly heart-warming when it should remain stringent. The Missing lives down to its title.
11/26/03
Top CriticThe film features all sorts of cat-and-mouse intrigue, but it never really gets you to care about what's going on.
11/26/03
The Missing is an absolute knockout, a western, a chase movie, an epic and the story of a splintered family and two civilizations at odds.
11/26/03
A first-rate psychological thriller that also happens to be a classic Western.
11/26/03
Top CriticThough some of the content is questionable -- especially the whole 'brujo,' or American Indian witch, subplot -- the film is well-paced. And Howard does a nice job of keeping us in suspense about what's going to happen next.
11/26/03
The Missing works well enough as a spare portrayal of life in the West, but it never quite gels as a powerful story of reconciliation and adventure.
11/26/03
Top CriticA terrific setup, full of inviting genre familiarity and modern tension, borrowed from the novel of the same name. And then, as that mouthy teenager goes lost in an Apache raid, so does the movie itself.
11/26/03
Solid, serviceable, well-acted entertainment.
11/26/03
This is a tough story, tough to tell and tough to take, and Howard isn't afraid to confront its meaner passages or dispatch likable characters as the plot demands.
11/26/03
It's such a preposterous setup that I was always aware of the plot chugging away, and the logistics of the chase defy all common sense.
11/26/03
Top CriticHoward's overambitious film manages to cast a spell, even in those stretches when it's easier to admire than it is to enjoy.
11/26/03
A sharp director of Westerns in the 1950s, such as Anthony Mann or Budd Boetticher, would have shaved half an hour off the running time, told the same story and perhaps also given the characters more personality.
11/26/03
The Missing is well made, suspenseful, and superlatively acted for the most part, but its harshness never feels organic to the tale. What should be devastating is just terribly unpleasant.
11/26/03
What could have been a compelling psychological thriller is nothing more than a downright plodding and predictable swipe at the Western genre.
11/26/03
Pesh-Chidin ... is by far the scariest son of a ***** to hit the big screen in a long while.
11/26/03
This is (Ron) Howard’s darkest film to date, and it is good to see him ably handle such a subject. Howard has developed into one of Hollywood’s finest filmmakers. ...
11/26/03
Blanchett and Jones elevate what could have been a desultory Western-throwback genre picture to a film with surprising emotional bite.
11/26/03
A haunting, harrowing portrayal of what a family goes through when one of their own is stolen.
11/26/03
It is willing to attempt some thematic complexity and it has reliably solid performances. But it does not address its themes with enough depth to justify its darkness.
11/26/03
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