A gripping epic (From Western Telegraph)

A gripping epic

The Missing Directed by Ron Howard Starring Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones Dur. 137 Cert. 15mins

Directed by Ron Howard, The Missing is unashamedly influenced by John Huston's classic The Searchers, but with a 2004 feel.

It's a warts and all modern, historical western, but it has the merest, tiniest hint of glitz and the supernatural.

Adapted by Ken Kaufman from Thomas Eidson's novel, the story is set in 19th-century New Mexico.

A father (Tommy Lee Jones) comes back home, hoping for a reconciliation with his adult daughter Maggie (Cate Blanchett). He dumped her and her mother many years earlier to go off and live with an indigenous tribe. Now a medicine man has told him that a cure for snakebite must include making peace with his daughter.

His daughter Maggie is a real frontier heroine, a Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman without the saccharine shampoo advert feel. She pulls teeth and sets broken bones and she's none too pleased to see her long-haired hippie dad again. But, when her daughter is kidnapped by a bloodthirsty Indian raiding party, she is forced to ask her father's help in going to hunt for her. They are up against a dark foe though.

Eric Schweig plays rogue chief Emiliano, not killing and kidnapping for political or racial reasons, but because he is pure evil. He means to sell Maggie's daughter into prostitution for money. Making the Indian the bad guy, as in days gone, by is the bravest step in making this studio pic - it hangs onto the reality.

As in every culture, where all other Indians in the story are proud and honourable, Emiliano happens to be a horror of almost fantastical proportions. The Missing is an epic tale and shot wonderfully by the ever-ambitious Howard. It is steeped in real character and feels very modern, despite its historical setting.

Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett are simply perfect.

The Missing is gripping throughout.