Even if it never turns out to be the most substantial movie, The Missing rarely stumbles in terms of entertainment value.
Comment
11/26/03
The Missing (2003)
59
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:166
Fresh:98
Rotten:68
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: An expertly acted and directed Western. But like other Ron Howard features, the movie is hardly subtle.
Runtime: 2 hrs 34 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $26,811,707
Synopsis: Director Ron Howard, who impressed audiences with BACKDRAFT (1991) and A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001), has outdone himself with THE MISSING, a wrenching family drama that unfolds in the midst of a classic... [More]
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Evan Rachel Wood, Eric Schweig
Director: Ron Howard
Reviews for The Missing
81 - 100 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Despite the actors' hard work (particularly Blanchett), the whole experience ultimately has a careful blandness to it, and the family-unity theme is hit with the subtlety of a hundred hammers.
11/26/03
A routine thriller, with Western frills and fringes.
11/26/03
[A] fine film.
11/26/03
A lean, efficient film that owes as much to the influence of Clint Eastwood as Ford.
11/26/03
An offbeat, downbeat movie assembled from the parts of classic westerns and frontier motifs.
11/26/03
Every time the movie starts to say something interesting about the complex relationship between the white man and the Indian, it retreats into genre cliches.
11/26/03
Much better than this year's Open Range, and just as good as the award winning (and in my opinion overrated) Unforgiven.
11/26/03
The Missing is often entertaining. But plainly something more was aimed for, and incredibly simple, basic missteps keep the film from reaching the next level.
11/26/03
The Missing fails to shape its ideas with much cogency.
11/26/03
A good, though not great, contribution to the genre.
11/26/03
A big snooze because we can't take the main characters seriously.
11/26/03
Howard's style-less, literal approach is to his disadvantage here, since it exposes the narrative as not very compelling and fairly generic.
11/26/03
Howard is all craft and no emotion, making his movie less like a western than a reenactment of a western.
11/26/03
Suffers from the same problem that has plagued every movie Ron Howard has ever directed: It's crisp, efficient, well-made and strangely, vaguely dull.
11/26/03
The movie can't overcome characterizations that are as spare as the landscapes and a Searchers- like story line that just isn't interesting enough to sustain interest over the course of 135 minutes.
11/26/03
A potent look at the harsh realities of frontier life and the disillusionment of the pioneer dream, framed in appropriately spare, unadorned widescreen compositions ... that is, until the movie gives way to a wholly unnecessary strain of witchcraft.
11/26/03
Anyone hungerin' to get back in the saddle for a good ol' epic western will find The Missing highly satisfying.
11/26/03
A powerful story of redemption.
11/26/03
There are some Western themes and principles you can't fiddle with. Thankfully, when it counted most, Howard didn't try.
11/26/03
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