When rancher and single mother of two Maggie Gilkeson sees her teenage daughter, Lily, kidnapped by Apache rebels, she reluctantly accepts the help of her estranged father, Samuel, in tracking down the kidnappers. Along the way, the two must learn to reconcile the past and work together if they are going to have any hope of getting Lily back before she is taken over the border and forced to become a prostitute.
Even Cate Blanchett can't save this misbegotten horse opera.
– Peter Travers,
Rolling Stone,
12 Dec 2003
rotten:
Mr. Howard keeps the emotional temperature of the family reunion as chilly as possible, but it's clear that the father-daughter relationship is the core of the drama, and the rest is all time-consuming digressions.
– Andrew Sarris,
New York Observer,
10 Dec 2003
fresh:
The rawest, scariest, most nerve-rattling saddlebags-and- sagebrush saga since Robert Mulligan's The Stalking Moon.
– Rex Reed,
New York Observer,
4 Dec 2003
fresh:
... a strange and haunting hybrid that's part Western, part supernatural thriller.
– Richard Roeper,
Ebert & Roeper,
1 Dec 2003
rotten:
The Missing is holiday entertainment for anyone who likes either a dollop of feminist uplift or family values (or both!) with their bloodletting.