Cady's Take:

Jones tracks the kidnappers through canyons, mountains and open ground with daughter and granddaughter in tow. This is not Tommy Lee Jones' first time playing a guy in search of a fugitive, of course; by my count, it's his fourth or fifth, I guess I am just tired of seeing him in this role.

The film has some strengths. Blanchett of course is wonderful, but when Howard resorts to Indian mysticism to punch the film up it’s just too drawn out to be effective. Lily’s ordeal should be devastating but you just get bored with the constant scenes of her almost escaping. With a runtime of 130 minutes, it's just way too long.

And oh yeah, there’s a surprise cameo by Val Kilmer, who doesn’t really do or say anything! Was that really him? Some scenes are truly harrowing, others are exciting, others are poignant, but none so distinctive in its mood that its impact will last beyond whatever film you see after this one. There are better movies to rent this weekend- leave “The Missing” on the shelf.

I had high hopes for “The Missing”. Directed by Ron Howard and starring Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones, and Evan Rachel Wood, I was expecting an exciting period piece and instead I got, well, “The Missing.”

Cate Blanchett plays Maggie Gilkeson, a single mother working as a doctor (sort of) in the middle of nowhere – “Little House on the Prairie” style. She has two daughters Lily (Wood) and Dot (Jenna Boyd). After Maggie’s daughter Lily is captured by a band of wild Indians (yes, I said wild Indians) the chase is on, and Maggie enlists the help of her estranged father Samuel (Jones) who coincidentally has shown up to make amends for leaving Maggie and her mother by trying to give Maggie a wad of greenbacks, which she of course refuses. Luckily for Maggie, Samuel has just enough money (and knowledge of Indians, since he ditched his family to go live with a tribe many moons ago) to purchase his granddaughter back and save her from being sold as a sex slave in Mexico.

So the chase is on and we follow Maggie and her father (who is mistaken often along the way for an Indian) and her ten year old daughter Dot (why she comes along, well, why not) as they chase this band of wild Indians toward Mexico where, Samuel warns, Lily will be “lost forever.” This is of course before Amber Alerts and America’s Most Wanted. None of the authorities Maggie contacts seem to realize that they are heading in the opposite direction of the rogue band of Indians and even after they are told, they keep going in the opposite direction because they are “following orders”!

“The Missing” cashes in on just about every cheap cliché about Native Americans and it borders on the offensive at times. I was a huge fan of Evan Rachel Wood when she starred in the television show “Once and Again” but here she is one-dimensional and finds her courage not from within, but from the page of her script. Cate Blanchett is excellent, and it is nice to see a tough woman in a Western drama, however the plot points are manufactured and her performance gets lost in the machinations of an overly-long piece of contrived movie making. I am begging you not to see this movie.