It's an entertaining and gripping film, with stunning production values and magnetic performances. And yet the script's continual pandering to Hollywood cliches lets it down.
Comment
11/27/03
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
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
In 20 years it will probably be regarded as Howard's finest film.
02/13/04
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03/01/04
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04/01/06
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02/09/06
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03/01/04
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04/09/04
Top CriticAlthough based on a novel, Thomas Eidson's The Last Ride, the story feels stretched to the snapping point and is certainly unfocused.
11/25/03
A movie is only as good as its villain, so they say, and the new film The Missing has a particularly lousy one.
11/27/03
The film sounds very few emotionally-striking notes.
11/19/03
The Missing has to be one of the more brutal, repulsive and doggedly unpleasant Westerns ever made by a major studio -- so grim and depressing it's hard to imagine how anyone but a masochistic critic could stand to sit through it.
11/25/03
However bogged down by predictable story rhythms, banally assembled shoot-outs, and climactic mano a mano, The Missing has an acidic period tone, a respect for the reality of violence, and a refreshing dearth of superhuman heroics and easy triumph.
11/25/03
Could have worked as a psychological thriller, but it plays its hand too early and too often.
11/24/03
[A] fine film.
11/26/03
The cast is uniformly terrific.
11/30/03
Reminds us, once again, that the western remains a viable and exciting genre.
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
The Missing is arguably Ron Howard's grittiest effort to date as a filmmaker.
11/25/03
A big snooze because we can't take the main characters seriously.
11/26/03
As a good ol' damsels-in-distress Western...The Missing is reliable, if over-earnest, matinee fodder. Unfortunately, the director has his eye on the Oscar...
11/25/03
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