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The missing(2003)
A doctor looses her daughter to sex trafficking native Americans in late 1800s. The movie follows her journey to rejoin with her daughter all while navigating through racially divided America.
This movie takes place in a time when Europeans have claimed the land at the end of Indian wars. There are still Indian soldiers out for revenge on western settlers. So settles have to be on the watch while building cities. Its directed by Ron Howard. Who I have already said in my review for Rush is a journey men aka mediocre director. He has no directorial signature. The traditional way guys like these get to direct movies are , during the early stages of career they show promise in the way they work under pressure on movie sets. Like an assistant director or second unit director. If some executive notices it then they get a small movie to direct. Slowly they find scripts at a studio that they feel they can direct and that are commercially viable. If they succeed at that stage then they up the stars of the movie like Tom Hanks or Russell Crowe. Eventually the tastes of movie going audience change with generation. These directors can't catch up with that. They are still in late 90s style of movie making. Ron Howard is like that. Somewhere around this movie and cinderella man his style sort of died and stopped making relevance. This is one of his last really good movies.
The movie starts and you get a sense of what to come. Movies like these where the surroundings are overwhelming and vast should never bend the nature to be a showcase for actors' acting. Actors should bend to the surroundings. Cate Blanchett is one of those actresses who is not too pretty to be a model. So she fits the bill for a serious actress. Director wastes no time to inform the plight of this family. various characters are introduced in the family and you get a sense that the director is going for the "acting" part of it. I can almost sense his thought process while making it - "even though this is a period thriller, I might sneak in few acting Oscar nominations through this movie". This sense of "acting" only increases the moment Tommy Lee Jones shows up. I can feel him thinking about his performance more than plot or narrative. That does a great disservice to the movie. During the first half, the movie tries to be this Oscar type movie where characters are chewing scenery to win Oscar. Audience are left marking time for "the missing" to happen. Anyone who comes to this movie want to watch the missing part and the events following it. Audience might not have done that had they been given something more interesting leading up to the missing part but since its so boring audience are not hooked to it. So we get that Tommy Lee and Cate are related. The moment the missing happens the movie is more interested in socio political aspects of the story. The political climate at the time and what the government is forced to do and the Indians are forced to do. Government is more concerned with political order than individual safety and Indians are showing their hatred and anger for settlers through sex trafficking their young women.
In movies that take place in open land in wilderness, the best approach to make a movie is to make it feel different. You should get rid of the sameness. Even well known actor should look different. The nature should dictate how the scene feels as opposed to try and control it. The filmmakers start the movie in a snowy location and then take it to dry lands. It was meant to be a sweeping epic covering different terrains but the story telling didn't lend itself to that. Director tried to force the landscape change on us. You can feel the production of the movie choosing spots and shooting around that area and then moving on to the next location. It never felt like natural progression of land. During a chase that stars near tress , all of a sudden you end up in vast patches of sand in a matter of seconds. As I say the flaws in the film, I find it extremely hard to point out even a single positive thing about it. Three elements that fell flat on their face in the movie are the younger daughter , Tommy Lee Jones and misused Native American antagonist.
Younger daughter is speaking like an adult because the script said so and she is "acting" and its so off putting. Young actors for the most part are very reactionary. They react to the moment. Tommy Lee Jones is a hindrance to the movie and the story. Even in vast scenic locations he is doing his thing and its distracting. The movie is very try hard. There is a deus ex machina scene where in our protagonists are escaping from an inescapable hurdle and all of a sudden in their long journey he comes across some friendly Indians that happen to know Tommy lee jones. Thats when I lost interest in the movie. These are 1950s tropes. Director has to find a better way than that. Even the reason they get into trouble is because the little daughter does something that could have been avoided. So the reason I am bringing all these is because the movie has 2 things going for it. Epic scale possibility and opportunity to create something new. But it squandered both those chances. I think there is a way to depict long distance journey on screen. In the movie way way back they showed that. But since the whole movie is about journey they had much more time. But this movie had lot to cover. The movie looks and feels so fake.Even the antagonist as scary and mystic as he was always felt underused. In the end this movie is not recommended even on TV. The movie bombed commercially and critically and it earned that result.
A doctor looses her daughter to sex trafficking native Americans in late 1800s. The movie follows her journey to rejoin with her daughter all while navigating through racially divided America.
This movie takes place in a time when Europeans have claimed the land at the end of Indian wars. There are still Indian soldiers out for revenge on western settlers. So settles have to be on the watch while building cities. Its directed by Ron Howard. Who I have already said in my review for Rush is a journey men aka mediocre director. He has no directorial signature. The traditional way guys like these get to direct movies are , during the early stages of career they show promise in the way they work under pressure on movie sets. Like an assistant director or second unit director. If some executive notices it then they get a small movie to direct. Slowly they find scripts at a studio that they feel they can direct and that are commercially viable. If they succeed at that stage then they up the stars of the movie like Tom Hanks or Russell Crowe. Eventually the tastes of movie going audience change with generation. These directors can't catch up with that. They are still in late 90s style of movie making. Ron Howard is like that. Somewhere around this movie and cinderella man his style sort of died and stopped making relevance. This is one of his last really good movies.
The movie starts and you get a sense of what to come. Movies like these where the surroundings are overwhelming and vast should never bend the nature to be a showcase for actors' acting. Actors should bend to the surroundings. Cate Blanchett is one of those actresses who is not too pretty to be a model. So she fits the bill for a serious actress. Director wastes no time to inform the plight of this family. various characters are introduced in the family and you get a sense that the director is going for the "acting" part of it. I can almost sense his thought process while making it - "even though this is a period thriller, I might sneak in few acting Oscar nominations through this movie". This sense of "acting" only increases the moment Tommy Lee Jones shows up. I can feel him thinking about his performance more than plot or narrative. That does a great disservice to the movie. During the first half, the movie tries to be this Oscar type movie where characters are chewing scenery to win Oscar. Audience are left marking time for "the missing" to happen. Anyone who comes to this movie want to watch the missing part and the events following it. Audience might not have done that had they been given something more interesting leading up to the missing part but since its so boring audience are not hooked to it. So we get that Tommy Lee and Cate are related. The moment the missing happens the movie is more interested in socio political aspects of the story. The political climate at the time and what the government is forced to do and the Indians are forced to do. Government is more concerned with political order than individual safety and Indians are showing their hatred and anger for settlers through sex trafficking their young women.
In movies that take place in open land in wilderness, the best approach to make a movie is to make it feel different. You should get rid of the sameness. Even well known actor should look different. The nature should dictate how the scene feels as opposed to try and control it. The filmmakers start the movie in a snowy location and then take it to dry lands. It was meant to be a sweeping epic covering different terrains but the story telling didn't lend itself to that. Director tried to force the landscape change on us. You can feel the production of the movie choosing spots and shooting around that area and then moving on to the next location. It never felt like natural progression of land. During a chase that stars near tress , all of a sudden you end up in vast patches of sand in a matter of seconds. As I say the flaws in the film, I find it extremely hard to point out even a single positive thing about it. Three elements that fell flat on their face in the movie are the younger daughter , Tommy Lee Jones and misused Native American antagonist.
Younger daughter is speaking like an adult because the script said so and she is "acting" and its so off putting. Young actors for the most part are very reactionary. They react to the moment. Tommy Lee Jones is a hindrance to the movie and the story. Even in vast scenic locations he is doing his thing and its distracting. The movie is very try hard. There is a deus ex machina scene where in our protagonists are escaping from an inescapable hurdle and all of a sudden in their long journey he comes across some friendly Indians that happen to know Tommy lee jones. Thats when I lost interest in the movie. These are 1950s tropes. Director has to find a better way than that. Even the reason they get into trouble is because the little daughter does something that could have been avoided. So the reason I am bringing all these is because the movie has 2 things going for it. Epic scale possibility and opportunity to create something new. But it squandered both those chances. I think there is a way to depict long distance journey on screen. In the movie way way back they showed that. But since the whole movie is about journey they had much more time. But this movie had lot to cover. The movie looks and feels so fake.Even the antagonist as scary and mystic as he was always felt underused. In the end this movie is not recommended even on TV. The movie bombed commercially and critically and it earned that result.