Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones form a strong team in Ron Howard's gripping 2003 western, "The Missing."
SATURDAY NIGHT AT?THE?MOVIES - I love a good western, and even though pickings have been slim lately, I'm always on?the?streaming hunt for a gem I might have missed. Thus, I was delighted to recently find director Ron Howard's 2003 oater, "The?Missing."?Howard is in solid form here as he brings together a terrific cast in a kind of new approach to a story in "The?Searchers" genre of western.?Cate Blanchett stars as frontier healer and single-mom homesteader Magdalena "Maggie" Gilkeson who lives out on?the?New Mexico prairie, raising two daughters, Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood) and pre-teen Dot (Jenna Boyd) and sparking with hunky ranch hand Brake Baldwin (Aaron Eckhardt). Enter Samuel Jones (a terrific Tommy Lee Jones), a white man who has gone total Native American (not only does he speak Apache, but he can do spells and incantations). Jones needs medical attention and he seeks out Maggie, who turns out to be his estranged daughter. There's no love here, and although she reluctantly attends to him, she also shows him?the?door. As far as Maggie is concerned, her dad died years ago when he left?the?family. Unfortunately, events intercede when on their way to a county fair, Brake, Lilly and Dot are attacked by a raiding party of Apache led by?the?terrifying?Chidin (a chilling Eric Schweig) who kidnaps Lilly and kills Brake. Miraculously, Dot gets away and is found by Maggie who reluctantly teams up with her father to find Lilly, before Chidin sells her and?the?other young women he's captured to?the?Mexicans for sex slaves. This is one of Ron Howard's best directing efforts and?theperformances are uniformly excellent. Blanchett was already improving her profile with her luminous portrait of Galadriel?the?Elfin Queen in "The?Lord of?theRings" series, but here in a decidedly unglamourous part, she's just riveting as is Tommy Lee Jones, in fine-grizzled form.?Look for cameos from Val Kilmer, briefly seen as a cavalry officer and an unknown Elisabeth Moss as one of?thekidnap victims. Also strong notice to composer James Horner's score and?thescript from Ken Kaufman who adapted Thomas Eidson's novel "The?Last Ride."?Check this one out.?