Blanchett...goes beyond the cliche of the hardy pioneer woman to create a fierce survivalist heroine.
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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
The Missing has the look but not the feel of a terrific movie.
11/26/03
There's a definite sense of danger permeating almost every minute of The Missing, a feeling that's supported by Blanchett's fantastic lead performance.
11/26/03
The Missing is an engrossing cross-cultural drama about a father-daughter reunion under dire circumstances that tests their mettle and their feelings for each other.
11/26/03
Characters go through what you expect them to. Stuff happens because it needs to. We get nice scenery. And, in the end, it all smells like a rubber stamp.
11/25/03
Plagued by script problems... but at least here, the director has a chance to apply his polished craftsmanship to a genuinely interesting project.
11/25/03
The Missing is a Western and while it may not be a great one, such as The Searchers, it is at least a very good one.
11/25/03
Doesn't even feel like a movie. The film just bounces from event to event without a feeling of cohesion. Tommy Lee Jones is a bit ridiculous.
11/25/03
Ron Howard successfully avoids all the associative traps delivering one of his finest achievements and a helluva Western to boot.
11/25/03
As hard as it may be to reconcile this as the work of the same director who made How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the fact remains that Ron Howard has never before made a picture this raw and alive.
11/25/03
Top CriticToo cinematic to be genuine
11/25/03
What could have and should have been a tight, suspenseful action drama... is instead overlong, loopy, and unsure of itself.
11/25/03
Howard continues to show versatility as a director, although his steady progress through various film genres has minted a style that is more workmanlike than spectacular.
11/25/03
The Missing has to be one of the more brutal, repulsive and doggedly unpleasant Westerns ever made by a major studio -- so grim and depressing it's hard to imagine how anyone but a masochistic critic could stand to sit through it.
11/25/03
As harrowing as it is full-out exhilarating.
11/25/03
Top CriticApparently the only thing tougher than endurance on the frontier is sitting through a movie about endurance on the frontier -- at least that is the point The Missing seems determined to make.
11/25/03
Top CriticThe master sentimentalist has made a dark, menacing film, a lean and disturbing western with some modern subtexts that goes where no Ron Howard film has gone before.
11/25/03
Top CriticA story well-told and built upon the solid foundation of Blanchett’s supremely capable performance.
11/25/03
As a good ol' damsels-in-distress Western...The Missing is reliable, if over-earnest, matinee fodder. Unfortunately, the director has his eye on the Oscar...
11/25/03
[Jones'] lived-in performance is one of the reasons The Missing works fairly well despite a reservoir of petty problems.
11/25/03
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