Ron Howard’s latest film is The Missing, which the distributors seem at pains to not call a western. Well it is a western – of that there can be no doubt. We’re in 1885 Arizona, and if that’s not the west, then call me the man with no name.
Cate Blanchett is the local medicine woman who lives with her boyfriend, Aaron Eckhart, and her two girls. Along with a farm hand they look after cattle and tend the locals’ ailments. Into this mix comes Tommy Lee Jones, dressed and behaving every bit like an Indian (or should that be Native American). He turns out to be Blanchett’s estranged father, although Blanchett wants nothing more to do with him. But when one of her children is kidnapped, and others are killed, she reluctantly allows him to help her follow the strange party of natives and white men who are heading south to Mexico with a group of girls to sell.
The vistas are fine, and the tension sustained throughout, although at over two hours, a bit of trimming here and there wouldn’t have gone amiss. Blanchett is a fine performer, and this is probably Tommy Lee Jones’ finest performance for a while.
Certainly some of the story is guessable, the ending’s a little obvious, and without giving anything away, you can probably work out who’ll ultimately live and die. I quite enjoyed the film nonetheless, and Hollywood really does deserve to make more westerns (even if they’d have it as being a thriller with a serial killer at its heart).
Not a bad western at all.