FILM review: Western genre stands tall with 'The Missing," with skillful acting by veterans Blanchett, Jones

Drama: Veteran actors Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett play conflicting characters in "The Missing," a new mystery drama with a western feel.

By John Waterman
Daily Mississippian

OXFORD, Miss. (U-Wire) -- It's hard to believe, but it's entirely possible to make a movie without a massive amount of special effects. It's even possible to carry a two-hour-plus movie on forgotten aspects of filmmaking, like good performances and cinematography.

"The Matrix: Revolutions" may rake in the big bucks with its computer-generated battle sequences and performances by actors who could easily have been substituted with wooden boards, but "The Missing" is a far better movie and may prove to be the sleeper hit of the year.

Set in New Mexico in 1885, "The Missing" stars Cate Blanchett as Maggie, a widow and mother of two, who makes her living as a rancher and healer. Early in the film, Maggie's estranged father Samuel (Tommy Lee Jones) shows up in an attempt to reconcile their differences. Jones is a white man who became so taken with the Apache culture that he dresses as one and adheres to all of their spiritual beliefs.

Maggie has no desire to forgive him and orders him off her land. Soon after, Maggie's boyfriend and hired hand are savagely killed, and one of her daughters is abducted. For a few minutes, it seems that the movie will languish in a "who-dunnit" kind of mystery by tricking the audience into believing that maybe Jones was behind the killings, but thankfully, this isn't the case.

Maggie quickly realizes that the local sheriff will be of no help. She grudgingly asks her father to help her track the raiders. He agrees, and along with her remaining daughter (Jenna Boyd), they begin a pursuit across barren New Mexican landscape.

It quickly becomes apparent that the raiders are renegade Apache Indians, who were known historically for their bouts of brutal violence even after their nation had been largely decimated. They are led by Chidin, a truly monstrous Apache who seems to have spiritual powers.

The movie, while having many staples of Westerns, never feels cliched or old. The meat of the movie comes from the character development and mounting tension. The actual gunfights at the end could have been better --the one in the recent "Open Range" was far superior -- but they're competently done, and don't take the jumpy, chaotic camera style that seems to be in vogue these days.

A few other aspects of the movie set it apart from the rest of the crowd. The most gratifying is that the cute little girl is not irritating or annoying in any way. Jenna Boyd gives a great performance, and whenever she's in danger, it's not because she's stupid. It's because the frontier is a dangerous and brutal place.

Speaking of brutal, the film's Apache villains are not treated like cardboard cutouts, but are in no way approached in a politically correct manner. They're a group of thieves, murderers and rapists, who prey on the weak and occasionally kill other lowlifes in horrible ways.

This view of the west is far more believable than a John Ford picture. It's more in the vein of Larry McMurty or Cormac McCarthy. The cinematography is also beautiful. Director Ron Howard has an eye for landscape, and his vision of New Mexico comes across as truly lonesome, barren and ultimately deadly.

Many nice touches, including a technology fair at the beginning, accentuates the fact that these characters live in a vanishing world, and irreverent pokes at the U.S. Calvary, usually the heroes in movies such as this. "The Missing" is, hands down, one of the year's best films. Let's hope the people running the show at this year's academy awards feel the same way.