This is under R because of director Ron Howard.
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: Ken Kaufman (Screenplay) Thomas Eidson (Novel)
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna Boyd, Aaron Eckhart, Val Kilmer, Sergio Calderon, Eric Schweig
Plot: In 1885 New Mexico, a frontier medicine woman forms an uneasy alliance with her estranged father when her daughter is kidnapped by an Apache brujo.
Tagline – How far would you go, how much would you sacrifice to get back what you have lost?
Runtime: 2 Hours 17 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Missing starts when a frontier medicine woman Magdalena (Blanchett) must look to put aside her distant relationship between her and her apache father Samuel (Jones) to go in search for her daughter Lilly (Wood) who has been abducted by a rogue group of Apache Brujos.
As the pair head out on the search for the group who took Lilly, they are joined by Dot (Boyd) the younger daughter, as the three learn about the open country and see just how Samuel has survived this world, with this much danger in.
Thoughts on The Missing
Thoughts – The Missing brings us a western that isn’t the cowboy needing to become the hero, instead focusing on a woman needing to fight back against a rogue group of native Americans to try and save her daughter who is to be sold. This is the journey needed to show the resolve in just wanting to survive and making sure the distant family could come back together after being apart for so long. The film does look beautiful with the scenery being used to show the open frontier era of the film. Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett in the leading roles are both excellent, as are the supporting cast through the film. This is a great and highly entertaining western adventure that showed the continuing struggle between the two sides, who fought of resources, instead of learning to work together.
Final Thoughts – The Missing is an entertaining look at the bleakness of the frontier era in America, with excellent performances, but can get held back by the long runtime.