The Missing (R, 2003)

common sense media says

A disappointment; relentlessly bleak and brutal.


parents & educators say

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this is an extremely violent movie, with frequent and exceptionally graphic brutal images and many injuries and deaths, including death of a child. A character commits suicide. There are sexual references and non-explicit sexual situations. The plot revolves around a plan to sell the girls into prostitution. Characters drink alcohol and use some strong language.

Violence: Extreme and very graphic peril and violence, characters killed, suicide. Intense peril.
Sex: Sexual references, nude dead body.
Language: Some strong language.
Consumerism: Not applicable.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking: Characters drink and smoke.

More on The Missing

What to talk about

Talk to your kids
  • Families can talk about the dualities this movie emphasizes.
  • Discuss how the Native Americans and the settlers interact. What does this say about our shared cultural past?

What's the story?

What's the story?
THE MISSING centers on Maggie (Cate Blanchett), an indomitable frontier woman who can yank an infected tooth, chop the firewood, handle a pouting teenager, and still find time for a romantic interlude with a handsome cowboy. She is known as a healer, and never turns anyone away, even her estranged father (Tommy Lee Jones), who deserted her family when she was a child and has been living with the Indians. She will treat him, but she will not forgive him. But then, when an Indian shaman and his henchmen (some Indian, some white) murder Maggie's lover and kidnap her daughter to sell her into prostitution, Maggie has to ask her father to help her track them so she can bring her daughter home.

Is it any good?

Is it any good?
 
The Missing is a disappointment, relentlessly politically correct and even more relentlessly bleak and brutal. In some ways, it's is a very traditional set-up, with the quintessential movie plot -- two people who do not get along forced to take a physical and psychological journey together in pursuit of a goal. Director Ron Howard sustains the bleak and ominous atmosphere with images like a riderless horse returning home and a wolf on the dining room table. And the story has some resonance, with themes that circle back. One parent left a child and another cannot leave a child, among other themes. Another parent who loses a child cannot continue.

The Missing has strengths, including the willingness to attempt some thematic complexity, reliably solid performances by Blanchett and Jones and the outstanding Jenna Boyd. But it does not address its themes with enough depth to justify its darkness, and thus does not succeed.

Movie themes & details

Movie Details
Studio: Columbia Tristar
Director: Ron Howard
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones
Genre: Drama
Run time: 100 minutes
Theatrical release: November 25, 2003
DVD release: February 23, 2004
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: violence

This review was written by Nell Minow
 
 

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Most useful reviews by all members

willowfew
teen, 14 years old
 
violence can be distirbing but over all good move
its fine im 14 thers a lot of violence but its ture this all hapined c kides sale this all the time they lived it. its history the nudity is pg13 its a butt the man is dead i coudent even tell he waz nude it when i wached it agean then i cud tell but over all it waz a good move violence can be distirbing

fuzzykat805
teen, 18 years old
 
Really Good
This movie was VERY good. I am only 11, so I probably shouldnt have seen this movie. I was on first class so i got 2 pik a movie, and it wuz the first R movie to pop up.

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ON: Content is appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child, some content may not be right for some kids
OFF: Not age appropriate for kids this age