The Missing (2003)

"Powerful and provocative..."

"Beneath all the requisite genre trappings there's a vast, empty gulch where the affecting dramatic element should have been found."

"What's missing in The Missing... is soul."

"The logistics of the chase defy all common sense."

"The master sentimentalist has made a dark, menacing film, a lean and disturbing western..."

"The Missing has to be one of the more brutal, repulsive and doggedly unpleasant Westerns ever made by a major studio..."

"The best and toughest western since Unforgiven."

"Jones, the actor, has never been more wry, sly and taciturn."

"A movie that is, by turns, needlessly unpleasant for cheap effect and misguidedly heart-warming when it should remain stringent."

"A racist, crocodile-tear-stained period screed..."

"Apparently the only thing tougher than endurance on the frontier is sitting through a movie about endurance on the frontier..."

"Ron Howard has never before made a picture this raw and alive."

"What could have been a compelling psychological thriller is nothing more than a downright plodding and predictable swipe at the Western genre."

"The Missing is well made, suspenseful, and superlatively acted for the most part, but its harshness never feels organic to the tale. What should be devastating is just terribly unpleasant."

"The film features all sorts of cat-and-mouse intrigue, but it never really gets you to care about what's going on."

"A big snooze..."

"A good, though not great, contribution to the genre."

"A film that can't be dismissed."

"Despite the actors' hard work (particularly Blanchett), the whole experience ultimately has a careful blandness to it..."

"Though intelligent and well-crafted, the film suffers from Ron Howard's fundamental sense of decorum and concern for his viewers' tender sensibilities."

"An admirably solid effort."

"The performances are great, the chemistry between the two leads is very good, and Ron Howard again proves himself a slick hand behind the camera... there's just something missing."

"In The Missing, Ron Howard somehow makes a great movie and an awful movie, all at the same time."

"For anyone who likes either a dollop of feminist uplift or family values (or both!) with their bloodletting."

"The cast is uniformly terrific."

"Even Cate Blanchett can't save this misbegotten horse opera."

"A gripping thriller and lovingly-made western."