Ron Howard
The Missing

Ron Howard is in limbo. It's difficult to find convincing films in his career that would make one shout 'masterpiece'. In fact, many times people talk about cinematic flops (see to believe "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons"). "The Missing", released in 2003, is yet another generally unremarkable effort from Howard, who in this case attempted the western genre. A western not in the strictest sense of the term, more of an adventure feature set in the American West.

The story tells us about the farmer Maggie (Cate Blanchett) who works to support her two daughters Lilly and Dot. After twenty years living with the Apaches, Maggie's father (played by Tommy Lee Jones) returns to reconcile with his daughter, whom he abandoned when she was young. She rejects her father, but will ask for his help when Lilly is kidnapped by a group of Native Americans led by a shaman.

In this "The Missing", Howard inserts the female point of view, giving great importance to the three women, while the "male" is left in the background, viewed as a malicious entity even when he comes only to help. Additionally, as with every frontier film worth its salt, there is no lack of Native Americans, although they require delving into a parallel discourse to the rest of the story. In fact, the Native Americans return to being ruthless enemies to be killed, but even the figure of Samuel (Maggie's father), who also lived with the Apaches, is seen as someone to distance from, with a dark past, thus picking up typical elements of the "twilight" western. Still speaking of the Native Americans, they are portrayed in a negative light also because they deserted the American army, and due to a not entirely linear plot, they are also men of honor who will help Maggie in her search for her missing daughter.

So there's a lot of drama in what has been called one of the most spectacular westerns of the last decade. Needless to say, tension, rhythm, and other elements are of great importance in the film which, inevitably, becomes heavy in trying too hard to find complex narrative solutions. Additionally, the story itself, not being particularly original, makes Howard's film really heavy in some moments.

The search, with a "generational" flavor of family succession (an old man, a woman, and a child), continues convincingly until Howard decides to spectacularize everything and bring the story into the "magical" realm. For the rest, "The Missing" is nothing extraordinary, but simply a pleasant film that finds its real strength in the performance of the three protagonists, along with splendid scenic views.