By: debbie lynn elias
Director Ron Howard tackles one of the toughest projects in his stellar career with “The Missing.” Facing the elements of nature and environmental influences, Howard took the unique approach of making the story adapt to the environment instead of the environment being adapted or created to fit the film.
Based on Thomas Eidson’s novel, “The Last Ride”, the story is set in New Mexico circa 1885. Maggie Gilkson is a hard-working, a single mother with two daughters, who works her farm together with her daughters and the help of Brake and Emiliano. She is also known for healing skills and provides medical care to those in need for miles around. She has a little romantic entanglement with one of her hands who shares her bed. Her daughters were fathered by another man whom we never see and learn little about. Lily, the oldest daughter and a teenager to boot, hates the rugged western life and longs for a more upscale existence (it looks like parents can take comfort in the fact that teenagers have always been a bit of a pain), while little sister Dot is all tomboy. Despite the loneliness and hard work, there is a closeness and peace that permeates their lives. Arriving at their door one day is Samuel Jones, a loner, who looks more Apache than white man. Turns out Jones is Maggie’s estranged father who abandoned her and her mother when Maggie was a child. Thanks to a near death experience he has decided to make peace with his daughter. But Maggie has other ideas. Headstrong and unforgiving on this issue, at gunpoint, Maggie demands that Samuel leave.
Despite the shock of Samuel, life goes Brake and Emiliano take the girls on a hunt while Maggie keeps the home fires burning. When they fail to return by the following morning, Maggie sets out in search of them. What she finds will change her life forever. Although Dot is safe, Brake and Emiliano are dead, having been savagely murdered. Lily, however, has been kidnaped by a psychopathic killer with mystical powers who sells kidnaped yong women for a profit across the Mexican border. Alone and with no one to help her save Lily, Maggie turns to Samuel. Together, they embark on a journey like no other as they search for “the missing.”
In what is really the first powerhouse female performance of the year, Cate Blanchett, solidifies the belief that there is nothing she can’t handle. Always outstanding with the more cerebral, intellectual roles, not to mention period pieces, Blanchett goes one better here, mastering the physical challenges innate to Maggie’s 1880’s frontier life together with the multi-dimensional complexities of Maggie’s emotional persona. (For Oscar not to look in her direction for this performance would be an enormous oversight.)
Not as far a stretch character-wise as Blanchett, already known for his aptitude at physically demanding roles, Tommy Lee Jones captures the Native American look perfectly, adding an edge of educated wisdom balanced with a ruggedness and contemplative mysticism and an occasional wry bit of humor only Jones can pull off. Another dimensioned character, Jones’ performance is one of creativity and bravery in his effectively tacit portrayal of a man straddling two worlds without full acceptance in either one. Committed to authenticity, Jones, already knowledgeable about the Old West, took his passion further, meeting with Apache elders and further studying the culture, the history and the people, adding a passion and knowledge to not only the role, but the entire film.
And of course, as with any Ron Howard production, look for some casting surprises, not to mention a good bit of his family.
Facing technical challenges associated with the terrain and the elements of nature, and still wanting to create a work that had both scope and intimacy, Ron Howard brought in Salvatore Totino as Director of Photography. Best known for his work in “Changing Lanes” and “Any Given Sunday”, Totino has the ability to create psychological suspense through imagery like no other.
Shot on location in New Mexico near the Jemez Mountains and Valles Caldera, Howard took advantage of the forces of mother nature, capitalizing on ice storms and snow storms and resulting flooding and mud to capture the realities of frontier life. The white gypsum mesa of Zia Pueblo gave him 65 mph wind storms and he can thank eons of geological history for the arroyos, volcanic craters and panoramic blend of sandstone bluffs and iron streaked rocks for visually stimulating photography. There is no movie magic here. This is Mother Nature at her finest. Using a hand held Steadicam for much of the shooting enabled Howard to capture many of the performances that would typically be lost if limited to more conventional filming techniques given the terrain and the elements involved. It also allowed him to develop a truer depiction of the hardships faced during those days as he took advantage of whatever nature had in store on the day of shooting.
Relying on photographs of the day and historical writings, Production Designer Merideth Boswell created an authentic working ranch for Maggie’s homestead and in doing so, Howard elected to shoot exterior and interior scenes at the homestead location in essentially “real time.”
Thanks to a screenplay by Ken Kaufman, director Howard maintains not only the integrity of Eidson’s novel, but also a balance between the forces of good and evil, as well as in the depiction of the Native American and the white man. A downfall, however, is his penning of Lily’s abduction which, while pivotal to the plot, has no real bite on its own and lacks the grit and emotion of the rest of the story.
Capping off this epic western masterpiece is a haunting score by James Horner.
Ron Howard has taken us into space, under the sea, into the mind of genius and now, into the Old West. With his patented craftsmanship and dedication to excellence, Howard’s work here is reminiscent of some of the great westerns by John Ford. And like Ford’s works, “The Missing” will prove timeless.
Samuel Jones: Tommy Lee Jones Maggie Gilkeson: Cate Blanchett Lily: Evan Rachel Wood Dot: Jenna Boyd
Directed by Ron Howard. Written by Ken Kaufman based on a novel by Thomas Eidson. A Columbia Pictures release. Rated R. (135 min.)
